I Am Dina

(2002)

This two hour costumer, performed by an international cast in English, is the most expensive film ever to be made in Scandinavia.

As a young girl, Dina causes an accident that results in the painful death of her mother. Her father backhands her as her mother is being carried off screaming. A neighbor hides her. She grows up feral until it is clear she needs help, so a teacher is hired. He plays his cello, and she is fascinated. He teaches her, and she has an aptitude. They also become close friends. He tells her that she released her mother from the pain and suffering in this world, and she buys into that idea. Then her father decides to send the teacher away, and to marry her off to a fat businessman (Gerard Depardieu).

On her wedding night, Depardieu tries to "mount her like a horse," and she rebels, finally making him promise never to do that again in front of all the neighbors. As time goes on, she nearly rapes him. In fact, he starts trying to escape her voracious sexual appetite. She also proves to be a better at running his business than he is. When he falls off a roof and breaks his leg, and then gangrene sets in, she heads off to a hospital with him, but pushes him over a cliff. Enter a Russian, that she spends the rest of the film with.

The above are only some of the highlights in  Dina is a severely conflicted character, but still sympathetic, and was played brilliantly by Maria Bonnevie, who gave the performance of her career, and did full frontal and rear nudity. I found it worth the watch.

IMDb: 6.4, with well over 2,000 votes.

It is available from RLDVDs.com in a Region 2 PAL, in English with optional Scandinavian subtitles. Click on the image below for information.
 

Numb

(2007)

2007's Numb is a comedy, allegedly. It does indeed have some amusing scenes, but basically, Numb left me numb with boredom. It's simply too slow-paced and laid back, which coincidentally, is the plight of its main character.

Screenwriter Hudson suffers from acute depersonalization disorder. This basically means he could care less about anything going on around him; he's numb to life. He lives alone being unable to maintain a relationship, and watches the Golf Channel all day. Financially well off, he shoplifts just to get his adrenalin up. A string of therapists fail to solve Hudson's problem, until the day he meets Sara (Lynn Collins), a young woman with her own baggage. Together, they help each other.

I didn't hate the story, nor the acting. The problem is that, in attempting to explore what Hudson's life might be like, they made the movie the same way: drab and boring
 

Lynn Collins	Holly Eglinton