Copenhagen (2014)

This post contains some information that may, although mildly, spoil portions of the plot. If you would like to avoid any chance of spoilers, please come back to this post after watching the film!

imdb.com

Copenhagen is a 2014 film by Mark Raso, starring Gethin Anthony and Frederikke Dahl Hansen. 

The tagline for this one really says is all - "When the girl of your dreams is half your age, it's time to grow up". William, travelling to Copenhagen to deliver a letter to his unknown grandfather, meets Effy who is interning at his hotel. Upon asking for help, William and Effy are now tied together (for better or for worse) through William's journey to learn about his family.

This movie is absolutely not for everyone. Based on today's sensibilities, there are a lot of people who are going to feel highly bothered, offended, or creeped out by this movie, and I completely get it - but it didn't feel that way to me while watching it. Perhaps its all of the French movies I used to watch, or how I separate things in my head, but I was both fine with it as well as recognizing its problematic nature.

At its core, it's a film about a man with some serious emotional parent-related trauma, and a girl he meets, who is in that phase between girl and woman and learning what that means. These two form a relationship, all at once necessary and healing, yet unhealthy and rash. Their age difference is significant - Effy, is 14, just on the cusp of turning 15 - the age of consent in Denmark, and William is 28. Although Effy doesn't know William's exact age at the start, she has a better idea of the difference than he does - William is fully ignorant of it. And when he does know, he is both horrified and cautious.

Perhaps this is where all of their knowledge of each other should have ended, but it doesn't. If it progressed any further than it does in the movie, I would be highly bothered by it. However the director and writer, Mark Raso, handles it in a way that I think is tasteful, beautiful, and an experience of growth for both characters, rather than a terrifying cautionary tale.

It's a movie that ends peacefully, even if not exactly happily. You wonder what the future holds, but also don't feel like you need to know that in order to sit with it.

There are a lot of things to dislike in this movie, not just limited to inappropriate relationships: underage drinking, bad friendships, creepy interactions with a parent's partner, theft, breaking and entering. I would advise most watchers to be aware of their own feelings about viewing these things before they start. Although so many movies and shows portray these things now, and many may be numb to them, they can be jarring to others, especially when you realize how young the characters are.

Overall this is one that I enjoyed and would be happy watching again in the future.

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Have you seen this movie before? What did you think? How do you feel about problematic themes in film - do you find them fascinating? - do you avoid them?