Director: Mehdi Avaz
Genre: Musical Drama, Romance
Cast: Christopher Nissen, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Christine Albeck Børge, Sebastian Jessen, Ardalan Esmaili
Duration: 99 minutes
Now streaming on Netflix
Is it just me or is it getting more difficult to find good shows or movies? When I struggle with this, I let the algorithm decide. That is how I ended up watching this Danish movie, A Beautiful Life. The movie is about Elliot (Christopher), who works on a fishing boat. His friend, Oliver (Jessen), invites Elliot to play backup guitar during a birthday party. The party is Suzanne (Børge), the widow of a popular musician who now produces music with her daughter, Liily (Lilleaas). During their performance, Oliver stops singing when the crowd is not feeling him, and Elliot takes over, mesmerising the crowd, and catching the attention of Suzanne and Lilly. What follows is Elliot’s route to stardom, along with the issues that come with it –some from his past, others to do with his love life.
A Beautiful Life is a little melodramatic in the delivery of its story. Sure, it can be moving and even romantic but it borders on soap opera drama in some places. Yet it is still a better story than many romantic dramas on the streaming app. Christopher, who I discovered to be a huge star in Denmark has a beautiful voice and his music is one of the movie’s finer points. Him and Børge have that chemistry that makes you believe their profession of feelings for each other.
If foreign language movies do not do it for you, the English audio does not sound too bad compared to most. You will miss out on hearing Christopher’s beautiful voice though – yes, even his speaking voice is beautiful. The explicit language is a bit much and unnecessary in some cases. Overall, an okay watch for a lazy Friday evening.
–Grace Kenganzi
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