Just Like Home (Hjemve) (2007)

by Lone Scherfig

An Analysis

Erling and His Sister

Just Like Home is that safe place most everyone knew as a child, and to which adults occasionally need to return. Individual crisis drives the ensemble cast of characters in a very small Danish town where everyone "supports each other, and helps each other." Centered around an under-reconstruction town square and a witch hunt for a man rumored to have run about town naked one night, Just Like Home uses these mostly as backdrop to uninteresting romantic pairings. We meet five primary male characters: Lindy Steen, the by-default town artist who garners undeserved respect from the townspeople; Jens Peter (Lars Kaalund), pharmacist; Erling, a man dealing with difficult parent memories as well as a sister who falsely believes she is dying, seeks illicit drug services of Jens Peter to manage his mood; Jesper, the third-generation owner of "Your Dressman" clothing shop; and Bo, the leader of on-strike town square construction workers. We also get to know Margrethe Nielson (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen), a recent escapee from the possessive, virginal religious cult Pure Path; Myrtle (Bodil Jørgensen), a marginalized social worker and pipe-carving hobbyist; Ulla (Mia Lyhne), the business-smart employee of the "Your Dressman" clothing shop; Mette-Inge (Pernille Vallentin), an assistant to Jens Peter; and Erling's unnamed, hospitalized sister (Ida Dwinger). In response to the "beware of the naked man" scare, Jens-Peter and Jesper involve others to promote, staff, and tranform The Silent Ear from a counselling helpline into a streaker sightings hotline. Lone Scherfig's third film since her breakthrough Italian for Beginners (2000) is the weakest of the three, but still worthy of a look.

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Please see the film before reading further

O Captain! my Captain!

If the small Danish town setting and the ensemble cast that couples off were not enough to remind us of Italian for Beginners, the repeat casting of Lars Kaalund and Ann Eleonora Jørgensen does. (Each is actually in his/her third Scherfig film--Når mor kommer hjem (1998), their first, unavailable in the U.S.) Unlike Italian for Beginners, Just Like Home does not conform to Dogme 95, lacks compelling drama and twists, and has us mostly disinterested in the interpersonal romantic relationships. It also has no deeper purpose than its emotionless, poster-spoiled, faint shadow of the iconic "I Am Spartacus" / "O Captain! my Captain!" moments of male solidarity. A director should not shy from shooting scenes similar to the iconic cinema, thereby creating wet noodle cinema. She should create, or at minimum to attempt to create, an impressive and new mise-en-scène that imparts audience-wide cinematic amnesia regarding the classic scenes. Above all, make us care about it!

Jesper, Jens Peter, at The Silent Ear

Several story lines go nowhere. While the residents make impressive attempts to build community solidarity via meetings, union strikes, and brainstorming sessions, as the Silent Ear transforms into a streaker sighting hotline, it starts to mirror the nasty call-in show from Bryan Singer's Public Access (1993), where townsfolk tattled on each other. But Silent Ear, lacking a village-wide audience, holds little potential for public strife. 

Bo, Ulla

Let it suffice to say we didn't care about the union strike or the square's reconstruction. We never see the square before reconstruction, so the audience is missing nothing. Meanwhile the construction zone seems to inconvenience neither traffic nor commerce.

While we care marginally that Your Dressman is going bankrupt, the resolution to the problem has no suspense. Once resolved, the shop and its former and latter owners, as owners, are never revisited. 

Margrethe, Erling

The most interesting character development potential was in Margrethe, the refugee from life-long Jesus Camp. Scherfig's treatment of Margrethe's Jesus Police minders was more interesting that her treatment of Margrethe, culminating in Jesus Police Office Vicky, while her male cult cop partner leads her away, cranes her neck back over her shoulder to leer at the scores of naked men as long as possible. It is the film's best laugh. Then again, Just Like Home has more primary characters than laughs.

All of these plot lines ultimately mean nothing, go nowhere, and have no denouement. They are used solely as plot devices to move individual characters toward coupling. How sad that, like in Italian for Beginners, the couplings again make little sense, and sadder still that we care less for Just Like Home's characters than we did for Beginners'. 

Though Just Like Home is the laggard in her offspring of films, it is after all worthy of a look. It is available with subtitles on Netflix streaming.

Since Just Like Home

Scherfig was fortunate to jump from this mediocre film into the brilliantly crafted, Oscar-nominated An Education (2009). Many filmmakers do not get such breaks. Let us hope Scherfig's upcoming One Day (2011) does not falter as Just Like Home did. She has a bit more safety net now, but that's no reason to use it.