ROSE – Review

The subtitled Danish dramedy ROSE features an award-worthy performance from its 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 annoys 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 Ellen (Lene Maria Christensen) and brother-in-law (Anders W. Berthelsen) 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 (who directed the original Danish GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATOO) contains an ideal mix of tension, comic relief and exposition. No cutesy feelgood artifice in the package. Inger’s illness may not perfectly represent the lives of those with her condition but it feels about as honest as entertainment films can get. It was supposedly inspired by a true story, but not offered as a documentary. As I write this, star Sofie Grabol 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, in Danish and French, with English subtitles, opens in theaters Nov. 15 and will be available streaming on Dec. 26.

RATING: 3 out of 4 stars