Jonas Elmer Movies
Renée Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. headline this romantic comedy about an ambitious Miami executive who meets the man of her dreams and begins reassessing her big-city values after accepting a temporary transfer to the middle of nowhere. When it comes to climbing the corporate latter, Lucy Hill (Zellweger) is a good few rungs above her closest competitor; she's got ambition to spare, and she cares more about driving the latest model car and filling her closet with shoes than making friends around the office. Offered a temporary assignment restructuring a manufacturing plant in the snowbound town of New Ulm, Lucy accepts, knowing that a big promotion is just around the corner. But New Ulm and Miami couldn't be more different if they were each located on separate continents, and as Lucy warms to the locals she discovers that there's more to life than making top dollar and wearing the latest fashions. When handsome local Ted Mitchell (Harry Connick Jr.) takes an interest in Lucy, it isn't long before the whole town is abuzz with rumors of romance, and the girl from the city discovers that a bit of rural magic could work wonders for her outlook on life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick, Jr., (more)
- 1998
Jonas Elmer made this black-and-white Danish movie by taking the funds provided for a short film and escalating the project economically into a full feature, commercially successful in Denmark. Julie (Sidse Babett Knudsen) taught her boyfriend Rene (Martin Kongstad) all about sex, but now she suspects him of seeing another woman. Unemployed Mogens (Bjarne Henriksen), who's occupied Julie's sofa for the past three years, watches soccer on Julie's TV-set with his buddies, including novelist wannabe Thomas and soccer fan Steffan (Nicolaj Kopernikus Christiansen). All have different agendas: Julie gets Steffan to help her break into Rene's place; Thomas uses binoculars to check out the babe across from Julie's apartment; and Mogens, who needs cash for soccer tickets, runs a scam on a recent widow to his later regret and shame. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidse Babett Knudsen, Bjarne Henriksen, (more)
- 1985
This flat tale of teen innocence lost is based on a 1958 novel by Klaus Rifbjerg and features, aside from middle-class manners, Tore (Thomas Algren) -- a popular young high-school stud, his devoted buddy Janus (Allan Olsen), his girlfriend Helle (Simone Bendix), and Helle's mother Mrs. Jundersen (Susse Wold). Helle has consistently refused any sexual advances made by Tore, and since a sub-text of the plot seems to say that young teen men must have sex or else, Tore is seduced by Helle's mother. Meanwhile, Janus does not know about Helle's stance on her own virtue and finds a fast-and-loose young woman to initiate him into the wonders of sex. The effect of Mrs. Jundersen's indiscretion, however, is more than anyone could have expected. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allan Olsen, Thomas Algren, (more)
- 1983
Based on the first book in a trilogy by Danish novelist Bjarne Reuter, Zappa proved an early international breakthrough for its director, Bille August. The story of three teenagers in 1960s Copenhagen is really no big literary accomplishment -- the boys become delinquents because of their parents' inattentiveness in particular and a decadent society in general -- but August elicited wonderful performances from his young, inexperienced cast, especially Adam Tønsberg, as the lower-middle-class boy with upward mobile pretensions, and Peter Reichhardt as the thoroughly vicious Steen, whose carnivorous pet fish gives the film its name. The son of Danish matinee-idol Poul Reichhardt, Peter Reichhardt offered a truly frightening portrayal of contained malice. Director August filmed the second novel in Reuter's youth trilogy, Tro, Håb og Kærlighed, the following year. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Reichhardt, Adam Tønsberg, (more)
