This Charming Man (2002) User Reviews

OK short, but not really Oscar material

[jditlev · 6/10 · 3 May 2005]

I was kind of let down by this short, since it won the Oscars and all. I xpected more. But it's actually an okay short, technically well done and sometimes rather amusing. But the story is too slight, and the humour, while being nicely subdued and gentle throughout, is not consistently funny enough throughout. But it's biggest problem is it's subject matter (which ironically is the REASON it won the Oscar) Film is PC moralizing in a manner that has been done to death here in Denmark. "respect your fellow man, even though he is an immigrant", "don't be a racist pig" etc., etc. This is all very fine, but I and pretty much anyone I know, don't need to be taught that. And I doubt a single racist bigot would change his mind after seeing this movie. It doesn't exactly give any real new insight into anything really.

But all in all, it is a well-crafted, rather amusing short, but don't expect Oscar material. But then again, "A Beautiful Mind" won the gong even though it was the least deserving in the pack.

Ok but needs better lead actor

[Spanner-2 · 8/10 · 17 March 2003]

This film is about a case of mistaken identity as a man in Denmark pretends to be a muslim in order to be close to a girl he likes. While having some interesting things to say about prejudice and the state of life in denmark, the film is a tad longish and the lead actor lacks charisma. GRADE: C+

What is the status of immigrants in Denmark?

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 8 February 2024]

The Oscar win by Martin Strange-Hansen's "Der er en yndig mand" ("This Charming Man" in English) went over my head at the time; after all, how many of the nominated short films are readily available to see? I finally found a copy of it in a local video store. To me, the short poses the question of immigrants' status in a country. The protagonist has had trouble finding a job, despite being a native-born person in an egalitarian society, so he poses as an immigrant in the hope of starting up a relationship with a woman whom he's fond of. I'm left wondering how successful he would've been had he gone the other way around.

Either way, it's an enjoyable short.

amusing take on serious subject

[macbethp · 27 March 2003]

I was glad to have a chance to see what turned out to be the Oscar-winner for short subject. Here in the U.S. we may forget that other countries also experience immigration in ways unique to each receiving country. The confusion over the names was funny and believable, and the bureaucratic maze in which the protagonist found himself is apparently universal! The teacher's empathy for her language students was explained, in a non-dogmatic way, by her own background as a "peasant" and the discrimination she suffered. I cheered when it won the Oscar--unfortunately, none of my friends had seen it and probably never will, because of the limited availability of these short films!

Not too deep, but still pretty relevant today

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 7 March 2017]

"This Charming Man" is not only a Song by The Smiths, it is also an Oscar-winning half-hour short film from Denmark and probably the greatest career achievement by writer and director Martin Strange-Hansen. A bit of a pity that his career is not going strongly anymore or that he did not really become huge in feature films after his triumph with the Academy here. He was around the age of 30 when this one came out back in 2002. So yeah, it is already 15 years old, but the subject of immigration is still as relevant as it could be now in 2017. And here we have a bit of a comedic take on it. It is nothing serious and there isn't a great deal of depth, but it's a solid mix-up comedy with likable characters. Some moments did not feel too authentic or realistic, like the revealing call with the job agency employee. Would she really tell it to his wife? Why does she even think she is his wife? Would she hang up and not let the protagonist say a word? Anyway, if you dig deep enough for flaws here, you will find them, which is why I believe that an Oscar nomination could (should?) have been enough here. But I am not too angry about the win either and recommend checking it out, especially to Danish audiences who maybe recognize some of the actors. Make sure you gets subtitles if you aren't fluent in the language. Thumbs up from me for this one, just not too enthusiastic.

Congrats on the Oscar! (No-spoiler-description of this movie)

[Freycinet · 9/10 · 24 March 2003]

Saw this sweet little comedy movie ½ a year ago, and just this night saw it get the Oscar 2003 for best short feature. Congratulations!

• No spoilers in the following description -

The movie is a humorous look at the racial discrimination issues in present-day Denmark. Due to a screw-up in the state bureaucracy, our young blonde protagonist - a Dane called Lars Hansen - finds himself obliged to attend Danish language classes for immigrants. He balks at the prospect, but ends up going, disguised as an Arab immigrant, to help out the teacher, a Danish woman and a former school acquaintance of his, who needs an extra pupil for the language class to be continued. Funny complications follow...

The tone of the movie is nice and subdued, not too pretentious and with believable characters. It relies heavily on Danish plays on words that might not translate too well (I don't know since I watched the movie in Danish. A good translator could do the job, I guess). I like the protagonist, he has a wide-eyed innocence and a basic optimism, "the little guy" one can identify with. He and the woman teacher basically carry the movie, but there are some amusing little secondary roles as well.

The cinematography is professional and has a clean, aesthetic "Nordic" tone to it. It is also irreverent and playful, as in the creative use of split-screens (during telephone conversations).

It's a deserved Oscar, check it out.

Breathtaking....

[ZuCkZ · 10/10 · 12 November 2003]

This is movie gives a very precise picture of the danish culture. The main character is El Hassan/ Lars Hansen. There is a mixup on the jobagency so they mistaken him for a foreigner. Then he meets a girls who he falls in love in and she teach danish to foreigners. It is then he takes his new character of El Hassan. All these comes out to an outstanding and funny movie.

I call BS

[Polaris_DiB · 3/10 · 29 November 2008]

For definite proof that the Academy has a certain social bias, pay attention to how often they nominate and award movies that deal with racism and prejudice, and how often movies about those very topics are made for the direct purpose of winning those awards, actual sincerity be damned. Now, this Danish short isn't necessarily lacking sincerity, but it is lacking believability and replacing it with schmaltz.

So this Danish guy is having a hard time finding a job in tough economic times, and everyone blames the Pakistani immigrants. He meets a woman from his childhood and wants to date her, but she's too worried about her recent breakup and the precariousness of her job teaching immigrants Danish to go with him, so he dresses up as a missing member of her class to try to get closer to her. In typical Hollywood fashion (yes, even for a "foreign film"), a relationship built on a lie leads to various misadventures and awkward encounters until the lead learns how awful terrible it is to be treated differently and the woman learns that his heart is gold. Over a hospital bed. No, really.

Worse, it's sympathetic message is tempered by the ridiculousness of the character's (essentially black-faced) caricaturing, while the whole damned thing could have been avoided had he had the balls to tell the truth from the beginning. He may learn a lesson, but he's still a schmuck. I couldn't even believe that this movie got as far as it did, much less won an Academy Award. I'll take my shorts with some amount of real meaning next time, even if it's not about racism, Academy.

--PolarisDiB

"Sorry, I thought I was someone else."

[Anonymous_Maxine · 9/10 · 8 March 2005]

It's a little difficult to say exactly what This Charming Man is about, if only because there is so clearly so much going on beneath the surface. On the surface it is a charming romantic comedy, but there are times where the very serious issue of racism is brought up in a very serious way, but the movie has a remarkable ability to switch back and forth between comedy and drama that allows it to utilize each genre to its maximum potential each time it is brought up.

Lars is trying to find a job, just about any job. He's desperate. One day he meets a girl that he used to know in school who was sort of the girl that everyone picked on because of her weight, and he was certainly no exception. He is shocked at her appearance, she has lost a lot of weight and, simply put, is beautiful. He soon realizes that she is also very successful and not desperate for any job she can possibly find, like he is, and he quickly falls in love with her.

Evidently racism is quite rampant in Denmark, or at least that is how it is portrayed in this film. The guys go out to the bars and tell jokes like an atomic bomb exploded in Pakistan and guess how many people died, none because they are all here on the dole! Very clever. Since I grew up mostly in California, I have heard plenty of similar jokes about Mexicans, but this movie takes a very real approach at the prejudice that immigrants suffer in Denmark, because employers are quite open about the fact that they don't want to hire someone who is an immigrant. There is something of an open dislike or distrust of them that makes their lives extremely difficult.

Having come from a family of Colombian immigrants, I know almost first-hand what it is like for those people. I have never experienced racial prejudice myself, since my mother in white (Danish, actually, as it were) and my father Colombian and I got my light brown hair and blue eyes from my mother's side, but while I was growing up I saw my father struggling from one menial job to the next, trying to learn to speak English at the same time as he is trying to help support his sizable, unskilled and uneducated family in a new country. It's rough, you really have to appreciate what these people go through, and while this movie spends a significant amount of time making you laugh, I think it does give you a clear picture of the plight of the immigrant, which is obviously not limited to Denmark or America.

Interestingly, there is a point where Lars, the main character (under cover as El Hassan) does not get a job, and Ida, the woman Lars has fallen in love with, jokes that he can't find a job "Just because you're not blonde and you're name's not Hansen!" I just found that to be pretty funny, because my mother's maiden name is Hansen.

At any rate, the movie works very well as a romantic comedy. The love-struck Lars reminds me of the hopeless romantic Shaun in Shaun of the Dead, another outstanding, if a bit unorthodox, romantic comedy. This one takes on some pretty serious issues, but it does so with a clear understanding of the gravity of the subject matter that it was dealing with, and with wonderful success in the final film. Seek this one out.

Is that Oscar-material???

[corpse1 · 1 April 2003]

Hey, this was not a bad movie. I just don't think it deserved an Oscar... I have seen many Danish shorts that were better than this one. It is a feel-good film, but it just isn't very deep, it's actually boring at places, and the whole idea is a little silly...

It's not a complete waste of time, but I've definately seen better!

A little long, but I liked it

[madfoot-2 · 24 March 2003]

Well, I thought the lead actor was just fine. He was supposed to be slightly nebbishy anyway. The movie I thought was a little corny, but the message was very sweet. I'm surprised it got the Oscar--it wasn't exactly deep. But it was feel-goody, so okay. I especially liked the part where the 2 guys get their beers and make a little happy sound. I guess that's universal.