Movie review - Rose

Rose ***1/2 (out of 5) This subtitled Danish dramedy features an award-worthy performance from its eponymous star, elevating what could have been treacly melodrama. It’s often said that leading roles with some sort of disability provide Oscar bait. But that doesn’t always work out as well as it does here. For example, the Campbell Scott vehicle Dying Young still bugs me whenever I think about it, even though it’s been over 30 years since I sat through the thing.

Sofie Grabol stars as Inger, a schizophrenic woman living with, and closely monitored by, her parents. We learn that her condition was one of adult onset, with progressive insights into possible causative factors from her backstory. But when her sister and brother-in-law decide to take her on a bus tour to Paris, we watch with trepidation. Inger is prone to retreating into herself, or to sudden outbursts of anger, brutal honesty about her feelings in a conversation, with a sense of looming harm her condition might lead her to do to herself or others. Between periods of withdrawal and flareups, we see bits of the bright, talented personable woman she had been.

The trip is a suspenseful set of unpredictable swings between her old self and whatever the voice in her head may tell her to do or say. The reactions of her fellow travelers realistically run the gamut from supportive to angry and scared. Seeming impossible to manage can flip quickly into her mastery of a situation. She bounces between derailing the journey for all and making it better than it could have been without her, with no way to predict what facet of her personality will manifest.

The screenplay from writer/director Niels Arden Oplev contains an ideal mix of tension, comic relief and exposition. No cutesy feelgood artifice in the package. Inger's illness may not depict the lives of those having her condition with clinical precision, but it feels as honest as entertaining films can get. It was supposedly inspired by a true story, but not offered as a documentary. As I write this, Sofie and the production have earned 10 awards and nominations in Denmark. More are sure to follow.

Since most of the running time occurs while the group is in Paris, the sets and scenery are major assets. Disclosing more about the plot or characters would be a disservice to the experience. Just know that a reviewer who generally shuns dramas with such a premise is very pleased to have seen this one.

(Rose, mostly in Danish and French, with subtitles, opens in theaters 11/15/23; and available digitally 12/26/23)