If there is one true success that writer/director Lars Von Trier achieves with his newest award-winning film, "Breaking the Waves," it is to tell a completely non-conventional love story.
The story revolves around the relationship of Bess, a naive and intensely emotional woman, and Jan, an oil-rig worker who is an outsider to Bess' close-knit strictly Calvinist community in Scotland.
Although Bess' friends and family frown upon the relationship, Bess and Jan marry despite their opposition. They have little time together before Jan must return to work but their passion and love for one another continues to build fervently until Jan departs.
When he leaves, Bess falls into an emotional coma, praying for Jan's return. Because of Bess' child-like innocence, it is difficult to discern whether Bess' conversations with God are normal or the result of some psychological disorder.
Bess lives deeply within her world of prayer that God controls, so much so, that when Jan returns home after being maimed and hurt from an explosion on the rig, Bess believes her prayers were the catalyst of his return.
Jan suffers potential brain damage and total paralysis, and Bess takes it upon herself to pray and find a way improve Jan's life.
As Jan's condition slowly improves, he realizes that he will never make love to his wife again. Jan believes love can keep him alive, but not if he forgets what love is like.
He thus, tells Bess to take a lover and relay her love-making escapades back to him. Bess takes his comments to heart (much to the chagrin of her community), believing this will prove her love of Jan to God, and will also give Jan the strength to live.
She sacrifices every bit of herself for Jan, sending her into a world completely foreign to her being, yet simultaneously, she naively believes will keep Jan close to her.
Von Trier has created a film with incredibly strong characters and a unique plot that draws the viewer into the story.
Critics agree, as the film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival last May.
The story is not only limited to the love relationship between Jan and Bess, but also touches upon issues of religion and spirituality, familial isolation, and psychological disorders. Each of these issues is neatly intertwined into the central relationship, making the story tight and focused.
Bess' endearing innocence and complete faith in love and God consequentially provide moments of great humor in the film. The plot unravels in a storybook-like format, with the film literally divided up into chapter segments that label the forthcoming section according to the story line. These pauses offer some of the only music throughout the film and give the viewer a moment to reflect on everything previously viewed.
Emily Watson, who has recently been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress gives a well-deserved critically acclaimed performance.
After four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London, Watson successfully made the move from stage to screen in "Breaking the Waves." Watson very obviously understands Bess' complicated character as sheprovides the outward expression of emotion necessary to make Bess' complete and total faith in God and her love for her husband believable to the viewer.
Stellan Skarsgard as Jan ("The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Hunt for Red October") successfully portrays his character as well.
This film definitely leaves the viewer with a great deal to contemplate. The religious and psychological understones of the film do color the story in a way that require reflection upon leaving the theater. The acting and directing are fresh and well-done, and the story is creative and original.
Although the film lasts approximately three hours, if you like artsy, non-Hollywood films, "Breaking the Waves" is definitely one to see.
