The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.
Ratings
Curator score: 5.9/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.69/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
Metacritic: 65
TMDB: 7.1/10
Director
Susanne Bier
Production
Zentropa Entertainments
Cast
Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen, William Jøhnk Nielsen, Markus Rygaard, Martin Buch, Anette Støvelbæk, Kim Bodnia, Tina Gylling Mortensen, Stig Hoffmeyer, Camilla Bendix, Birthe Neumann, Susanne Juhász, Elsebeth Steentoft, Bodil Jørgensen, Wil Johnson, Eddy Kimani, Emily Mglaya, Gabriel Muli, Mary Hounu Moat
Curator Review
Verdict
A forceful, emotionally bruising drama that uses family fracture, childhood vulnerability, and moral compromise to build toward a painful but memorable payoff. It’s not perfectly unified, but the performances and the seriousness of its questions make it worth seeing.
Best for
viewers who like prestige dramas about family breakdown
fans of morally complex stories about revenge and forgiveness
people drawn to intense performances from children and adults alike
audiences who appreciate socially conscious European cinema
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted thriller with no tonal drift
you dislike melodrama or overt emotional manipulation
you prefer stories that stay focused on one central plotline
you’re looking for light, uplifting drama
Overview
Susanne Bier’s film is at its strongest when it treats violence as something learned, inherited, and repeated across generations. The two boys’ friendship gives the story its emotional charge, while the adult world around them feels compromised, exhausted, and unable to protect anyone for long. The result is often gripping, sometimes messy, and frequently devastating.
Worth noting
What lingers is the film’s seriousness. It is interested in grief, masculinity, parental failure, and the way private pain can spill outward into cruelty. The crosscutting between domestic life and the Sudan storyline can feel blunt, but the performances keep it grounded and humane.
Bottom line
Even when the structure strains, the movie lands its emotional blows. It’s a thoughtful, well-acted drama with enough tension and moral unease to reward viewers who don’t mind a heavy hand in service of real feeling.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (4.5★) · 125 likes
Action!: The Flattening Society of Susanne Bier
Another fantastic film that showcases Bier’s unparallel skills to craft this incredible human drama. Also, Mikael Persbrandt’s Anton has to be one of the best examples of not only a dad but a man. He has his flaws, sure, but it takes a lot to not beat Bodnia’s a$.
The friendship between Christian and Elias was interesting and opened the door for plenty of very tense moments. Ultimately, the movie seems to want… more
phil (4★) · 51 likes
Always crying for children
Best international feature academy award winners
cinemasauron (3.5★) · 51 likes
Winner of Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, In a Better World (also known as Hævnen) is a Danish drama that tells the story of two separate families, which is going through a tough time and focuses on the budding friendship between their two kids, who are equally troubled by what's brewing inside their homes.
Co-written & directed by Susanne Bier, In a Better World explores the themes of revenge & forgiveness and is crafted with care & dedication. The screenplay handles… more
Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋 (4★) · 45 likes
Although uneven in its composition and sometimes unclear in its objectives until they are explained in the last 20 minutes, Hævnen is not one, but two messages of transcontinental value, one of personal decisions regarding moral, the other one of family distance in the presence of death and loss. The relevant message here regarding the families is that adult problems, mishandled priorities and break-ups are troubles destined to be transmitted to their children unless they are taken care of beforehand.… more Although uneven in its composition and sometimes unclear in its objectives until they are explained in the last 20 minutes, Hævnen is not one, but two messages of transcontinental value, one of personal decisions regarding moral, the other one of family distance in the presence of death and loss. The relevant message here regarding the families is that adult problems, mishandled priorities and break-ups are troubles destined to be transmitted to their children unless they are taken care of beforehand.… more
Julian (Seeking Film) (3★) · 32 likes
Like it or not, this will always be the movie that allowed Bird Box lady to accept an Oscar over Alejandro Iñárritu, Yorgos Lanthimos, our lord and saviour Denis Villeneuve, and some fourth guy. But does it stand on its own? Mostly, but there was still a large part of me that thinks Susanne Bier had just watched Babel and thought, "Yeah... I could do something like that." I think it's the grimy presentation of an intense story placing so… more Like it or not, this will always be the movie that allowed Bird Box lady to accept an Oscar over Alejandro Iñárritu, Yorgos Lanthimos, our lord and saviour Denis Villeneuve, and some fourth guy. But does it stand on its own? Mostly, but there was still a large part of me that thinks Susanne Bier had just watched Babel and thought, "Yeah... I could do something like that." I think it's the grimy presentation of an intense story placing so… more
2003 · Thriller, Crime, Drama · 2h 18m · R · Curator 7.9/10 (986.4K ratings)
A dark family-and-community tragedy about trauma, vengeance, and the damage done by unresolved hurt.
Topics
prestige drama, psychological intensity, family tragedy, moral dilemma, bullying, revenge, forgiveness, European cinema, emotional realism, social issues