Direction: Malou Reymann
Country: Denmark
For her first directorial effort, Malou Reymann, whose film career began at a young age as an actress in Hella Joof’s 2009 drama Hush Little Baby, draws on her own personal story. She lived a completely ‘normal’ family life until the day her mother (Neel Rønholt) dropped a bomb by announcing she and her husband (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) were divorcing because he had decided to go for gender transitioning and become a woman.
Unlike her older sister (Rigmor Ranthe), the 9-year-old Emma (Kaya Toft Loholt), a soccer girl with the soul of a fighter, faces greater challenges in fully accept this situation. The foursome attend therapy sessions that turn out to be more chaotic than helpful, and the family balance gets inevitably shaken up as flashbacks from happy times intertwine with the complicated new reality.
A couple of dispensable scenes - especially the musical ones - and some other insisting on lightness when heaviness would be a more appropriate option, don’t obstruct the positive message to be delivered. It’s a tender treatment of a delicate subject that focuses on so many aspects: resolute self-acceptance, volatile adaptation phases, adolescent maturation, social discomfort and unconditional love. The family members take their time to grow, repositioning themselves without losing a bit of affection for one another. There's no histrionics here, just honest feelings and relatable concern.
The casting is decisive when it comes to this particular genre, and both the young lead actress and Folsgaard as the patient and caring Thomas/Agnete (we never catch a glimpse of indecision or regret in his eyes, and he sort of trusts time to heal things up) deliver wonderfully nuanced and totally believable performances.
