Not a love story

Breaking the Waves has no pretty people or happy ending

by JULIANNE PIDDUCK

European art cinema darling Lars von Trier's challenging new film Breaking the Waves builds on two blatantly unfashionable ideas: true love and faith. This film pushes beyond the saccharine smugness of conventional love stories. Von Trier takes romance out into a forbidding spot on the northwest coast of Scotland and drops it smack dab between two extraordinary, ordinary-looking lovers.

Bess, a simple-minded girl with a heart of gold and a literal belief in God's miracles, falls for Jan, a Danish off-shore oil rig worker. Braving the village's stern disapproval, the two marry and enjoy a brief life together full of laughter and sexual awakening. Outsiders like Jan and his international buddies from the rig (including Jean-Marc Barr of Le Grand Bleu) bring music, dance and a frank joyous sexuality into this remote enclave of strict Calvinism.

So much for love. Faith becomes essential for Bess when Jan is paralyzed by a serious accident on the rig. Seeing that he can no longer make love to Bess, Jan encourages her to take other lovers. Believing she can talk to God, Bess makes a strange pact, offering herself to other men in exchange for Jan's health.

The Danish von Trier (Europa) won the Jury's Grand Prize at Cannes last year for this tale. Newcomer Emily Watson carries the film with her riveting Oscar-nominated portrayal of Bess, a girl of few words whose feelings splash across her face without reserve and without artifice. Watson gets ample backup from Danish veteran Stellan Skarsgard as the understated Jan and Katrin Cartlidge (of Mike Leigh's Naked) as Bess's overprotective sister-in-law Dodo.

Atmospheric, self-consciously artsy and two and a half hours long, Breaking the Waves demands an emotional commitment from its audience. If you're in the mood for smooth camera work, pretty people and happy endings, this film is not for you. But if you're up for an off-beat love story, von Trier's film might restore your faith in different stories and different modes of storytelling.

Breaking the Waves opens Friday, March 21. See film listings for showtimes