R (2010)

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I liked this movie, but it made me reflect on how crazy and wrong the prison system is, even in a place like Denmark. I know many disgree, but I think that prison should be somewhere you go to become a better person, to find back to who you really are. Not a place to hae your soul tormented and your spirit crushed. This movie manages to show a world where you either do what it takes to survive, or you are destroyed. Some times you do what it takes, but you are unlucky or someone tells a secret to the wrong person, and you are still destroyed. In between all the violent "masculinity" and bullying, there are moments of humanity, like the friendship between Rune and Rashid and the seeming care the men have for a couple of birds. I liked the fact that we don't get to know too much about how Rune ended up in prison. He could be any regular guy, and that is the whole point.

So, our main "protagonist" is thrown inside a prison nobody would ever want to visit.This review contains spoilers...!It doesn't take long before the tougher prisoners - 'Mureren' in particular - target him, put him in place, force him to jump through their hoops and accept whatever crap they throw his way... Rune being alone and having no chance to defend himself, doesn't have much choice.Following a failed drug-smuggling deal, Rune is screwed because he now owes money he can't cough up. 'Mureren' has it in for him - he did stab a friend of 'Mureren' on the outside... So it's time Rune is put out of his misery.Were we really supposed to care about this guy? I found no reason to root for Rune... He's hardly any better than them, just weaker. Sure, the guy who wastes him is a typical thug - a scumbag member of a gang of scumbags who all belong in there, so I'd give some credit to the actors portraying these low-lifes. Since the movie could be a somewhat realistic portrayal of life in places like this, props go where they are due.But it's just bleak. And like Rune - of little redeeming qualities.

Very nice film that really shows how the life in prison can be. Many of the prisoners are real bad guys, and some of them have actually been to prison in the very same place that the movie is shot before the prison closed in 2006.Also the main correctional officer Kim, is a real officer that actually used to work in the very same prison, and is now working in Denmarks newest high security prison that opened in October 2006.The movie shows a very harsh environment, just the way it actually was. When you watch it you get a real feeling of what it would be like to be in prison.Today the old prison is operating as a museum and many parts of the building has been left untouched since the last inmates were moved to the new prison.

I first have to say that i'm not a professional critic. It is very hard for me to find the right words to describe any form of art.43 is my age and maybe i have seen many movies in my life. The movies i saw the day before 'R' were 'The good, the bad, the weird' and 'I saw the devil'. The first was very good fun and the latter from the same director gave me a feeling of: I don't want to witness this. I'm getting to old for this kind of excitement.So with that feeling in mind I red the summary of 'R'. I had also seen 'un prophete' (great movie btw). Comparisons here. Masterpiece there. etc etc. I had to see it.The feeling of not want to witness this stayed until the opening scenes with the shady music, and Rune going up the stairs. And stayed with me until the end. After seeing this movie a week ago I still want to cry. I now realise that the director bathed me 99 minutes in powerlessness. This movie literally gave me, besides a sadness that stretches and stretches, a genuine fear for the prison system in my own socially secured country.Musically this is a movie that won't disappear in the shadows of more stylistic films like 'The deer hunter', 'Once upon a time in the west' and more recently 'There will be blood'. All with their masterpiece defining music scores. In the prison the camera captures the non existing distance of stares: of guards, inmates, grandmothers, Rashid and Rune. And what this did to me emotionally, was something i never experienced so profound before. A movie that makes your heart cry is one thing, but to go beyond that and mix the acting with this kind of realism is very special.The last fifteen minutes with Rashid played with my sympathy for the main character and was a big switch but made also clear that the story doesn't stop. And with that last zoom out the fridge door closes again. Can you compare Radiohead with The Beatles. 'R' is in my opinion emotionally in a league of it's own. But keep in mind my age. Maybe i'm just approaching a midlife crisis where crying gets easier, and tears just trouble my judgement.