2008, Denmark
Crime, Drama
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Extended version:
Poor Skarrild, Denmark is getting a bad rap. Located in the South Jutland region, the town finds focus around boots, beer, bullies and bogs -- and everyone knows where the bodies are buried in the latter. At least, that is the case according to the tragically misnamed film, Terribly Happy, Denmark's Foreign Language Film submission to the 2010 Academy Awards.
Director Henrik Ruben Genz follows Robert Hansen (Jakob Cedergren), a Copenhagen cop with a mysteriously troubled past that forces him to being stationed in Skarrild. The new sheriff in town is in fact the only sheriff in town, and the lone gunman stands little chance against the citizens who do not need him. The dark and quirkily sinister area is barely held together by its own rules, leaking with questionable moral codes. When Robert presents a new variable to this town of cultish constants, the locals are thrown off kilter and yet still manage to steer the law to suit them.
When pill-popping Dr. Zerleng reveals that Robert has his own medicated history based on a nerve-wracking event, the audience is forced to wonder if the film is in fact a vision from his own psychological punishment. Everything looks relatively stable on the surface, yet what is normal in Copenhagen would never fly in Skarrild, and vice versa. The locals' behaviors are darkly comical in their adherence to dubious traditions, and there is never a thought towards change or escape. Suitably, everyone -- even the cat -- says "mojn" as the word for hello and goodbye; it is all the same here.
Robert quickly finds himself in the middle of an abusive marriage of which everyone is aware but which no one will confront. Even Dr. Zerleng demands that Robert remove beaten wife Ingerlise from his office after he has sedated her, for fear that husband Jørgen will attack. Robert holds himself at a distance as long as possible, until he and Ingerlise intertwine in a dangerous fashion and he is forced to intervene. However, as he constantly states, this is not done by the book.
Terribly Happy digs into small town mentality and finds the graves of lost common sense. A bonded sense of place ranges from identical laundry methods to brutal cover-ups, and yet the pillars of the community continue to deal the cards that ensure that their odd sameness is passed down to the next damaged generation. This barren town of purgatory swallows its troubles into the surrounding bogs, where all guilt and difficulty are laid to rest. Yet once someone has made a deposit into this quagmire, he is forever tied to it, whether that makes him terribly happy or not.