Teddy Bear (2012)

The Worst Film Ever

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Best movie of this year hands down!

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Directed by Mads Matthiesen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Martin Zandvliet, this is a disturbing movie about a very likable guy, the teddy bear of the title.Dennis is a professional body builder, a huge hulking man who is a gentle giant of 38. He still lives with his mother in her home, and at first I thought she suffered from dementia because of the ultra politeness of Dennis's dealings with her, never arguing, doing whatever she said, sharing the bathroom with her in the mornings. However, it became clear that his mother was a controlling, very subtle monster who kept her son at a pre-school level in their relationship. Dennis is played very well by Kim Kold in what appears to be his first, maybe only movie appearance. Kold is indeed a professional body builder. His mother is played by Elsebeth Steentoft, a professional actress who is incredibly expressive without moving a muscle. Most of the cast have no other movie experience, and Matthiesen did a wonderful job getting a professional quality performance from everyone. The plot of the movie is whether Dennis can separate himself from his mother, and I found my self rooting for him along the way. His disagreements with his mother never have raised voices, are based on her subtle manipulation of his feelings toward her, and require her to keep him as her little boy. She refers occasionally to men being disappointments and to Dennis's father, whom Dennis never knew, and her greatest reproof of Dennis is to tell him that he's like his father. The struggle for control over Dennis's freedom is never out in the open.Dennis's struggle is as subtle as his mother's control, so the drama of his journey is without rage or tears. Just the lonely journey to independence that he should have taken as a boy, made more difficult by decades of manipulation by his mother. Kold does an excellent job showing the internal conflict without emoting. It's a very good movie.I have the movie on a DVD from filmmovement.com, and the DVD contains two short features by Matthiesen. I don't know whether this is one sick dude or he just likes to explore sick relationships. One of the features is "Dennis," a short version of "Teddy Bear" which shows more of the relationship between Dennis and his mother. The other feature is "Cathrine," which explores the relationship between an overweight 16-year-old girl and a 33-year-old man. As in "Dennis" and "Teddy Bear," Cathrine's parents are controlling, but you can't root for a girl to break free with a man that old -- out of the frying pan and into the fire, I fear.

Based on filmmaker Mads Matthiessen's short film Dennis of five years ago, Teddy Bear (oddly titled 10 timer til paradis [10 Hours to Paradise], in it's native Danish) is the delicate character study of Dennis (Kim Kold), a 38-year-old, 400 pound, 1.9m tall, trophy-winning body builder. A domineering presence, he is the biggest manchild ever encapsulated on screen. Softly spoken, with no friends other than his sparring gym buddies, Dennis still lives with his diminutive mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft – In A Better World, Italian for Beginners). With a distinct lack of confidence, he is trying to find some meaning of life behind the muscle. When his somewhat Freudian relationship becomes overbearing, and inspired by his uncle (Allan Mogensen), Dennis travels to Thailand to purchase the love of his life. Basting in the monsoon heat, he puts on his tailor-made threads and parades the city bars and restaurants looking for a lady of the night. The girls are clearly interested in the hunk, but he is afraid of commitment and sexual contact. He returns to his sanctuary, the gym, and stumbles upon a friendly Thai widow (Lamaiporn Hougaard) who may just be the woman he has been dreaming of. But what would Mother Ingrid do? Whilst the name Teddy Bear may sound like a dab-hand at tired irony, there's something awfully mawkish and non-Scandinavian about this Danish drama. Written by Matthiessen and collaborator Martin Zandvilet, the lack of comic relief, dark subtext or substantial plotting means that the drama feels rather meat headed and predictable. Kim Kold's portrayal of the reticent Dennis is initially impressive but, when the film needs some emotional depth, the beefcake's acting chops are tested and tarnished. A treacly character piece, it's the absolute antithesis of the 1973 Arnold Schwarzenegger- centric documentary Pumping Iron. Both movies fill the screen with impressive muscle, but Teddy Bear weighs in without the heart, passion or balls it needs to carry it's preposterousness.

It's a "feeling" movie. It's about a mood, a feeling. Inside one person, searching for it in another person. The feeling is gentleness. And the pervasive powerful, insistent sense of it coming out of such a person, is just... amazing.It's totally a visual movie. The content and plot are nothing to be concerned with, they are Normal.Watch how Abnormal this guy is. Watch how he persistently avoids the Normal and finds another person like himself. (She's actually quite a bit more normal than he is)He is a Mountain, a Monument of abnormality, dedicated to being gentle in a world that is almost completely unable to let me (or any of us, for the matter) be gentle.And it's Not just his nature, it's also a dedication. And somehow he Uses that bodybuilding to reinforce his gentleness. He Moves gently.It's quite a performance. I have no idea who he is, or what he actually is like, nor do I care. But here, he and the director have built... and elephant of a person. Huge, powerful, and gentle.Joy to watch.

Teddy Bear highlights and shows the life of a professional body builder in his attempt to find love amidst his massive muscles and odd profession. His search ends up taking him to Thailand where he ends up finding a lovely Thai woman who shares his interest in love. The true problem is not his muscles in his quest for love, but his codependent relationship with his petite mother, who is the real hindrance to finding love. It appears that she wants all his love to herself and won't let him free. She won't let her baby boy "fly", and "Teddy Bear" hasn't learned how to fly, metaphorically speaking. The mother of the body builder has an emotional hold on his life and his heart. Every decision, or it appears every feeling that 'Teddy Bear" has, must be run and checked through his mother. He emotionally cannot escape the grasps of his mother's reigns. Throughout the film he battles his inner beast by trying to escape the grasp of his mother in order to find love by traveling to Thailand and even hiding his girlfriend from his mother in an apartment. In the end, "Teddy Bear" ends up escaping the co-dependent cycle with his mother by moving out of his mother's house and moving in with his girlfriend and finds his love.The true beauty of this film is found in it's theme of masculinity. The film redefines what it means to be a male. We have the image of a massive body builder being ruled and dominated by nothing more than a 90 pound woman. All he desires is love and freedom. In his quest he never uses his muscles or size to break free from the emotional tyranny. It is his heart and mind that breaks free from his mother and flies towards dreams of love. The woman he ends up falling in love with is no bigger than a thimble. The same message is told in his love life. Love has nothing to do with power. It's a beautiful reminder and example to all male's that masculinity has nothing to do with physical prowess. It's a good reminder to all male's that being a true male means using your heart is a passive manner. Love and freedom manifest through thought and emotion, not power and anger. Hopefully people who view this film will redirect their view of masculinity. It has to do with the intellect and matters of the heart.Lastly, and on a cheesy note. I think the film maker was trying to tell a story that we are all capable of finding love regardless of our background, family issues, and current situations. Big or small, trapped or free, love is possible.