The Door (2009)

Theatrical Poster
This film is not on the Empire 500.

The Door (Die Tür) is a German film that follows a man who finds a door that sends him 5 years into the past.

After finding his daughter dead in the swimming pool following his affair with a neighbour, David (Mads Mikkelsen) finds himself out of luck with his ex-wife (Jessica Schwarz) as the film forwards by 5 years.

He attempts suicide, but following his rescue he finds a door that sends him back to the time of his daughter's death. He saves her but kills his past self in an ensuing struggle. As he tries to adapt to replace himself in his past life, all is not as it seems.


Going back to visit a loved one is something that is a very common theme in the world of time-travel, so when I read the blurb of The Door, I wasn't overly excited for fear of it being yet another overly-romantic film. A romantic film it is most certainly not.

What The Door does have is a very interesting plot concept. Its central object is, of course, the time-travel door. While it is not often seen being used throughout the film, the way that the writers have made a grand use of it being there and incorporated it intricately into the storyline is absolutely superb.

Mads Mikkelsen, who is more famous for his roles in King Arthur and as a James Bond villain, excels as David and as a man torn between the life he left behind and the life he has now re-entered. The inadvertently sinister moments are separated well from the obvious pleasure at being able to hold his previous dead daughter in his arms once more.

While there are a number of unexplained plot holes (especially when he meets his previous self), it is a shame that The Door has not gained more popularity as it is one of the best German films that I have seen for a long, long time.

StarStarStarStar

Comments

  1. Wow, sound like a really interesting movie and would have passed under my radar if not for this blog.

    On a slightly unrelated topic, how do you get the first few paragraphs of each blog in the home page and then click through to see the rest. All of mine are in their full view on the home page.

    Film Genie

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do it using the Jump Break command. This has to be input where you want the break (so in my case I usually add it just after the plot summary).

    You can add it by pressing the broken page icon at the top of the compose tool (between add a video and align text). A grey line will appear on screen.

    Alternatively, if you use the Edit HTML option you can insert the text where you want to insert the jump break.

    Finally to change the text that appears on the break (where mine says "Full Review, Rating and Links »"), you need to go into Design, and click on Edit on the Blog Posts module and change the "Post page link text" box. Press save and voila!

    There isn't an easy way to do this for all your existing posts without going back in and editing them all, so mine are just left as they are.


    As for the film, it's worth a watch :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have never heard of this one either but it sounds right up my street - added to my watch list!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment