Danish actor Trine Dyrholm delivers a magnetic performance with all guns blazing in The Guest, an intensely painful, uncomfortable, and sometimes uncomfortably funny film from writer-director Mads Mengel. Shot in a freewheeling handheld style with looming extreme closeups, the film channels the spirit of Thomas Vinterberg's Dogme 95 classic Festen.
A Dysfunctional Family Gathering
Karl (Simon Bennebjerg) and Emilie (Mette Klakstein) are a young Danish couple with a new baby, arriving at a hip seaside hotel for a secular-humanist christening “naming ceremony.” They host a large crowd of relatives, one of whom brings a guitar to perform a song for the infant—a rather Richard Curtis touch. Karl's sister (Josephine Park) is there, along with Emilie's parents (Petrine Agger and Peter Gantzler). The one person absent is Karl's formidable, emotionally volatile mother Vibeke (Dyrholm), who has bipolar disorder and has been sectioned once.
Karl fears and resents his mother, cutting off contact and blaming her for behavioral issues due to her refusal to take medication and her history of chaotic scenes. To his horror, he discovers his sister invited Vibeke anyway, unable to bear telling Karl. She cares for Vibeke and resents Karl for not sharing the burden, also knowing she would face fallout from a snub.
Vibeke's Arrival
Vibeke arrives beamingly friendly and celebratory, but also queenly and imperious, suspecting the invitation from her daughter, not Karl, does not grant her VIP status. She is a “guest,” an unwelcome outsider. The blue touch-paper is lit for a gruesome firework display. Dyrholm's Vibeke is animated and charming but unnervingly inappropriate, with sketchy boundaries: she playfully slaps her daughter as reprimand, a curtain-raiser for actual violence.
Vibeke keeps it together long enough for Karl (an excellent, understated performance from Simon Bennebjerg) to relent and allow her to participate. But the proceedings involve “christening” the baby in the sea, and when an increasingly over-emotional Vibeke takes charge, the film must be watched through your fingers.
Poignancy and Performance
There is something poignant here: a family scene of resentment and rage in sharp contrast to the baby's innocence. Vibeke went through what these young parents are now experiencing when her own children were tiny. Her depression, excitement, and sense of injustice are not just symptoms but authentic parts of who she is. Yet she makes life impossible for others and herself. Dyrholm delivers a hugely watchable and intelligent performance. The Guest screened at the Karlovy Vary film festival.
