Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Again: what sort of woman sleeps with both a  man and his teenage son in the same house? In her second feature, Queen of Hearts ( Dronningen ) co-written by Maren Louise Kaehne, Egyptian-Danish writer-director May el-Toukhy addresses the same question as Eliza Petkova’s film, A Fish Swimming Upside Down with a near identical outcome. Here though the woman in question, Anne (Trine Dyrholm in a fearsomely committed central performance) is a successful lawyer who specialises in defending children. By her own admission, Anne doesn’t have any friends. Her father has died. She doesn’t visit her mother. She is however close to her sister, Lina (Stine Gyldenkerne) who varnishes Anne’s nails and is separated from the father of her young mixed-race son, Lucas (Noel Bouhon Kiertzner). Anne and her doctor husband, Peter (Magnus Krepper) have twin daughters, Frida and Fanny (twin sisters Liv and Silja Esm å r Dannemann). Their family expands when Peter brings his teenage son, Gustav...