Dyrlægens plejebørn (1968) User Reviews

Get me a pair of scissors, and I'll be able to render this about a half of a good film

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 6/10 · 29 September 2010]

Because of a misunderstanding, an unmarried veterinarian ends up taking care of a child. Yep, pretty standard. Maybe that's why they opted for a few subplots(one of them drastically different in tone from everything else in this, that could(and should) be excised with no negative impact), leading to the clumsily assembled, extremely uneven, disharmonic mess we have here. Somehow, this does resolve most of them(ironically leaving the main story the most unsatisfying and open), in spite of dedicating an absurd amount of time to jokes and gags that have nothing to do with anything, and are seldom even funny(the best material is in the last thirty minutes). They are far too silly and goofy(and did they need to ram the fact that Passer drives an old car down our throats like that?), and those flashbacks(I kid you not, I have a hard time believing this many useless ones were committed to one single collection of celluloid) are just torturous. While the humor does have cleverness and wordplay, little of it is of even average quality. Many things in this have no consequence. There are freakin' circus acts in this. It's really unfortunate that there is so much bad to this, that the whole is so unfocused, because aspects are great. Honestly, I'd say the majority of them are. The handling and the combination is the culprit. Dirch overplays at times, albeit no one watching this for that will be happy with the amount. He is spot-on, however. The entire cast is, really. Strøbye, Stegger, Hertz, Sprogøe, and I could go on. Gringer is charming and likable. The kid that this supposedly revolves around is Winnie, and she definitely is cute, natural and largely convincing. She consistently uses the word "step (dad)" to refer to the man in charge of her and mispronounces words, and this comes off as fairly genuine. There is some realism to the writing, and observations, and this truly resonates. In a welcome change from the Hollywood tradition of resignedly telling audiences that their offspring are gonna whine until they give in and continue spoiling them, this encourages the use of ones imagination, instead. There are a couple of songs, and they're hit and miss. There is disturbing content in this. I recommend this to fans of Danish farces from this period. If you can stand this at its worst, you'll receive the bounty of it at its best. 6/10