SYNOPSIS:
The comedy Adam's Apples is a modern religious fable about
belief, and the fight between good and evil. Adam is a neo-Nazi,
who is sent on community service with the priest Ivan. Ivan
gives Adam the task of baking an apple pie with apples from
the tree in front of the church. Meanwhile birds, worms and
lightning are attacking the apples. Ivan believes it is the
Devil, who is testing them, but Adam believes it is God, because
it might be, that evil does not even exist.
MOVIE
REVIEW
This is the first time watching a film by Anders Thomas Jensen,
an acclaimed Danish filmmaker. Initial apprehensiveness is
won over by its unexpected good surprises. The film is a marvelous
black comedy but proven to be deeper and thought-intriguing.
It questions the existence of Satan, whether the sufferings
and mishaps are the works of Satan or God. Why should God
allow the misfortunes to happen to His people if such occurrences
are within His Almighty’s control?
For
those people who are unfamiliar with the biblical study, the
whole film is built on the idea of “Book of Job”.
It is strongly recommended to understand its story to fully
appreciate this film. Just a note that there can be different
versions of interpretation. In a land of Ju, there was a man
called Job who has undergone from riches to rags and sufferings.
To his friends, they insisted on their assumption that God
must have afflicted such misfortunes on him due to his sins,
though they have thought that Job, had been a good man, did
not deserve such fate.
To
God’s given trials, Job responded with equanimity: "The
Lord gives, and the Lord takes away; blessed be the name of
the Lord." – quoted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Job#Satan_in_the_Book_of_Job
Job
understands that through such ordeal, God wanted him to experience,
learn and grow to develop into a person with intrinsic attitude
parallel to His.
Anders
Thomas Jensen, also the scriptwriter, has effortlessly combined
profound thinking and interesting bits of humor. The whole
film is in Danish, and the only understandable part is the
English song “How Deep Is Your Love?” picked to
be played during the car journey of Vicar Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen)
and Adam (Ulrich Thomsen). The familiar pop song selection
by Anders is witty for it has unknowingly served a bond between
Ivan and Adam in their friendship after what they had learnt
from each other. In the beginning, Adam’s animosity
of Ivan is unmistakable and his quest of leaving the church
is to destroy Ivan’s overly-optimistic mindset by breaking
his utmost faith in God. Will Adam succeed in it? And can
Ivan come to his senses and face the harsh reality? What truth
lies for Ivan?
Numerous
adversaries faced one after the other will easily bring down
a man to his helpless sensation. Ivan, a church clergyman,
has his faith in God tested.
The
lead actors Vicar Ivan (Mads Mikkelsen) and Adam (Ulrich Thomsen)
are indeed the souls of the film. Mads Mikkelsen was “Tristan”
in 2004 King Arthur movie while Ulrich Thomsen has starred
in “Kingdom of Heaven” as the Templar Master.
The rest of the supporting cast are relatively unknown to
the local cinematic scene but they too demonstrated the wonders
in their portrayal.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
Comes equipped with a choice of Danish Dolby Digital 2.0 or
5.1.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Just a
trailer.
MOVIE
RATING:
 
OVERALL
DVD RATING :
Review
by Alicia Tee
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