Copenhagen, a first feature from director Mark Raso (who also wrote the script), has been pretty divisive so far as it’s played around on the festival circuit. There are a couple of roadblocks: the unpleasantness of the lead character and the age of the female character. But Copenhagen has some really interesting things going on if you just stick it out. I found it difficult at first. I was so turned off by the lead guy. But there is something on the other side of it (and it’s a very good performance). Besides, one of the things the film is doing is actually questioning its own genre. So I found the film to be strange, off-putting, not perfect, and interesting, far more interesting than your regular conventional fill-in-the-blanks rom-com that only knows how to play by the rules. Yawn. Give me something different, give me something ugly, something that doesn’t really work in parts over something that is terrified to deviate from the formula.
