Jerusalem

Bomb Rating: 

Given how utterly, hopelessly boring "Jerusalem" is, (Director Bille) August might have done better dropping a camera in a fjord somewhere and letting 166 minutes wind off.

Perhaps the release of two films by director Bille August("Smilla's Sense of Snow" was the other) so close together will put an end to the misconception that Danish people have any business making movies.

Given how utterly, hopelessly boring "Jerusalem" is, August might have done better dropping a camera in a fjord somewhere and letting 166 minutes wind off while he wandered around by himself in hopes of bumping into the St. Pauli Girl.

The story takes place in 19th-century Sweden where the dull Ingmar (Ulf Friberg) hopes to take up the dull task of town preacher and marry the dull but pretty Gertrud (Maria Bonnevie), daughter of the town's current dull preacher. However, a dynamic preacher named Hellgum arrives and convinces many of the town's citizens that things wouldn't be so dull if they went to Jerusalem, so they go, including Gertrud and Ingmar's sister.

Things certainly aren't dull in Jerusalem -- they just suck. With all the townspeople gone from town, Ingmar is forced to marry the daughter of the owner who possesses his family's property, so things suck for Ingmar as well. Finally, when the film ends, everybody agrees that dull isn't great, but it's better than having things suck, a point driven home by the fact that in sitting through this movie, you'll experience both states to their fullest.

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