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Kira's Reason: A Love Story (2003)
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Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 12
Rotten:6
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Theatrical Release: Jan 17, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: From the screenwriter of THE CELEBRATION comes KIRA'S REASON: A LOVE STORY, a Danish Dogme film directed by Ole Christian Madsen. A recovering mental patient, Kira (Stine Stengade) returns home to her husband after a stay in a psychiatric... From the screenwriter of THE CELEBRATION comes KIRA'S REASON: A LOVE STORY, a Danish Dogme film directed by Ole Christian Madsen. A recovering mental patient, Kira (Stine Stengade) returns home to her husband after a stay in a psychiatric hospital, only to begin a long and difficult adjustment back to her old life. She struggles to accept that her husband had an affair while she was undergoing treatment, a fact that he admits to openly. Jealous rage causes her to have stressful fits and temper tantrums which are quieted by her seemingly patient and loving husband. Though her interest in her children has faded to nothing, she appears to be making progress. Then, in a sudden twist, she goes off the deep end. What ensues is a series of complex, disturbing, violent, and confusing events that break through every notion viewers had about the movie they were watching. A dark and winding tale full of emotional torment and shocking mood swings, KIRA'S REASON shows Madsen's clear expertise with filmmaking. With his starkly depressive characters and uncomfortable photographic techniques, he knows exactly how to evoke an intense reaction from his audience. [More]
Starring: Stine Stengade, Lars Mikkelsen, Sven Wollter, Camilla Bendix
Starring: Stine Stengade, Lars Mikkelsen, Sven Wollter, Camilla Bendix, Ronnie Hiort Lorenzen
Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Director: Ole Christian Madsen
Screenwriter: Mogens Rukov
Studio: First Run Features
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Reviews for Kira's Reason: A Love Story
An incredibly touching ride along the jilting, jarring ups-and-downs of a deeply, madly loving relationship, where two people never quit trying, and failing, together.
[S]tunning... a sometimes painfully intimate peek at a crumbling marriage...
As [Kira's] actions become more impulsive and her marriage unravels, the film is engagingly unpredictable.
Its pat finale ill-befits a film that otherwise strives successfully for stark emotional realism.
...Stengade’s portrayal of a mad housewife is alternately arresting and repelling, the kind of work for which they ought to hand out statues.
Had the film's center been the husband, it would have been more intriguing.
Stengade, in her first leading role, is at once vulnerable and frighteningly manic.
While Madsen and his Dogme 95 colleagues seek to overcome Hollywood’s influence, Kira's Reason is an indication that they are a product of the same patriarchy.
This Danish import provides a showcase for the lead actors, especially wide-eyed Stengade, who manages sensuality amid all the emotional volatility.
Steeped in a chaotic intensity that characterizes a fractured, disoriented mind.
Stengarde gives an arresting performance as a mentally unstable woman.
The film never particularly achieves any depth or resonance and ultimately comes across as a series of wacky, albeit rather disturbing episodes.
The most colorful Dogme film, and the best to portray beauty, albeit damaged beauty.
[Allows] the actors to inhabit characters who are painfully contradictory, frustrating, flawed, vulnerable and bound to each other.
Despite Kira's Reason's chamber-drama focus, it never achieves [Madsen's] first film's intimacy.
In Stine Stengade's intensely engaging performance, Kira is always one step away from the abyss, although, without apparent effort, she manages to hang on.
Tying up the psychological loose ends of a movie that promised so much more, the trite ending subscribes to the bogus therapeutic notion that one good cry and a confession of vulnerability can wipe away a lifetime of repression.
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