“Love Is All You Need” is an unexpectedly upbeat film from the chronically downbeat Susanne Bier – if you can use upbeat to describe a romance between a cancer survivor and a still-grieving widower.
Labeling this film a romantic comedy is probably a mistake; romantic dramedy is more like it. There are laughs and a warm romantic feeling to be had, but there’s more going on here than simple feel-good story-telling.
Rather, Bier is looking at second chances – at recognizing them, seizing them and appreciating the opportunity to do so. When one world collapses, another world emerges.
Trine Dyrholm is Ida, a hairdresser in Copenhagen, waiting to see whether her breast cancer will recur. But she has her daughter’s wedding to look forward to, at least until she walks in on her husband, mid-boff, in their living room, with an accountant from his company. So Ida sets off alone for the wedding in Sorrento, Italy, an emotional wreck because of her cancer and her husband.
She’s so upset that she heedlessly smashes into the car of an angry Englishman, Philip (Pierce Brosnan), in the airport garage. As coincidence would have it, he is the father of the young man, Patrick (Sebastian Jessen), who is marrying her daughter, Astrid (Molly Blixt Egelind) – at Philip’s Italian villa.
This review continues on my website.