Springet (2005) User Reviews

Tries to be life-affirming, but is just confusing

[freebird-64 · 5/10 · 22 October 2007]

Springet (English title: The Leap) is yet another obscurity from the ongoing Cine Europa 10 European film festival. Its so obscure that I had trouble locating it in IMDb under its English title and had to look it up through its director, Henning Carlsen. Sad to say, the movie is mediocre and not very well done. It begins as one type of film, abruptly changes to something else at its mid-point, and then ends without really resolving anything.

The movie opens with 42-year old Tobias (Mikael Birkjǽr) being told he has pancreatic cancer, is terminal and has only a few months to live. Despite the support of his loving wife Ruth (Susanne Storm), he becomes depressed and begins reflecting on his childhood love Ida (Marina Bouras) and an incident that happened (the "leap" of the title) wherein she encourages him to leap from the balcony of their house with an open umbrella.

The first half of the movie seems to be moving towards being a life affirming drama about facing death, with Tobias being encouraged by Ruth to pursue his ambition of being a professional musician, and the flashbacks to the childhood leap a metaphorical way of telling Tobias that he needs to "take the leap" and pursue his dreams.

But then, without warning, Tobias suddenly announces that he's alright, he's not dying. Even more surprising, the doctor who diagnosed him turns out to be Ida's father, Overlǽgen (Peter Steen) who beat him up when he was 15 after he caught Tobias and the sexually-precocious Ida making out. So it then becomes a mystery: why did Overlǽgen lie to him? And what happened to Ida, who became a professional ballerina, then abruptly ended her career several years past. Is her father indeed keeping her a virtual prisoner in their home? This second half is the less engaging part of the film, as the mystery is not satisfactorily developed and resolved. In fact, because of this abrupt shift in tone, the would-be life-affirming climax loses its impact and the resolution is unsatisfying. Making the end even more confusing is a brief epilogue in which Tobias, in voice-over, says that if given a choice, he would choose eternal death over eternal life.

So is it worth watching? Not really. I don't regret watching it but at the same time, I really can't recommend it to others. The performances are okay, with the actors who play the young Ida and Tobias particular standouts. But the weakness is in the script and direction, which are uninspired and muddled. The filmmakers seem unsure as to what they really want to say. Are they making a statement about living life to the fullest? About the impact of the choices we make in life? Its not really clear.

Still, if you have the time and you can see it for free, as I did, then you might want to try it. After all, you might react in a different, hopefully more positive, way than I did to the movie.

About a guy who gets cancer and how he reacts to that fact

[peter-1400 · 5/10 · 1 October 2005]

I watched this movie at home, on my home theater system. I wouldn't say this is the best Danish movie I've seen, but neither the worst. If you are in a lazy mood and just want to relax with a film and some popcorn before you head to bed, this movie might be the one to watch! The essence of the movie is "what to do, if you get a deadly disease and your days are numbered?" The movie is pretty much straight forward, but still makes you think of your own life and treasure it.

I liked this movie, because it is very much down to earth. However it's not a movie that I would watch twice, very mediocre. So as previously stated, if you want a nice film to relax to its pretty good, but if your inviting friends over for a blockbuster, you might want to show something else.

The Leap

[random_avenger · 7/10 · 12 August 2010]

42-year old Tobias (Mikael Birkkjær) hears he has pancreatic cancer and only a few months to live. Initially he becomes depressed but goes through different emotions while learning to accept the situation. But why did a particular childhood memory flash in his mind the moment he heard about his illness? Tobias' old memories of his teenage relationship with Ida, a quietly rebellious girl next door, are shown in lengthy flashbacks, particularly the incident when she persuaded him into jumping from a balcony with a big parasol as his parachute. The young Tobias and Ida are played by Simon Kabel and Anna-Sofie Vegge Andersen respectively.

At first it looks like The Leap is going to be just another tragedy with sentimental violin music and lots of crying, but luckily the story makes unexpected turns as time passes on. In the first half of the film the flashbacks take almost as much time as the present day scenes, so the nature of young Tobias and Ida's relationship obviously bears a strong connection to the adult Tobias' view of the world. The focus is turned from accepting death to overcoming buried emotions from the past. Each of the main characters has their own past traumas, such as failing to believe in something, being hindered by an overprotective father or suffering from the loss of a loved one many years ago.

The themes are not explained thoroughly and are open to many interpretations. The film also doesn't allow itself to be restricted by the strict boundaries of realism and I don't think it needs to be completely believable in terms of our world, only its own. In any case, the actors are good, especially the girl who plays young Ida, and I loved the jazz music and the faded cinematography of the flashback scenes. I would dare to recommend Springet to anyone with an interest in films about accepting death, but it's refreshingly different from the conventions of the genre (well, at least if "death acceptance movies" can be called a genre). It should also be enjoyable to those who are fascinated by the relation of our personal memories of the past and our perception of the present.