# Fruen på Hamre (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    THE LADY OF HAMRE
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  ** 1/2

Watching Katrine Wiedemann's bleak THE LADY OF HAMRE (FRUEN PA HAMRE) is like taking some bitter medicine that you know is supposed to be good for you but whose taste can be hard to stomach. An earnest and well-acted movie, it is one that you want to like, no matter how disheartening it becomes. Telling the story of two abused, newly married sisters, it is set in what looks to be a couple of centuries ago in Denmark.

As the story opens, middle age Bente (Bodil Jørgensen) is told by her dying father that she is to be married to an oaf named Gorm (Bjarne Henriksen). From the day of the wedding, Gorm makes it clear that he's more interested in one of the young servants than his wife. Having sex with the pudgy Gorm is like being pinned by a beefy wrestler so Bente isn't missing much. Bente, a quiet, resolute woman runs the farm, which her father leaves to her.

Meanwhile, Bente's younger sister, Grethe (Rikke Louise Andersson) takes up residence in a fine house in the city after she marries the boyishly handsome Martin (Nicolaj Kopernikus). Martin's parents prove just as crude and evil as Gorm so that Grethe's life is no better than her sisters. It is a sad and depressing story whose saving grace is that it eventually puts us out of our misery.

THE LADY OF HAMRE runs 1:27. The film is in Danish with English subtitles. It is not rated but would be an R for sex, nudity and violence and would be acceptable for high school seniors and older.

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