Adam's Apples

By this point in MADSNESS we've had gangster Mads, cannibal Mads, villainous Mads, fat Mads, ripped Mads, and mentally ill Mads. ADAM'S APPLES gives us saintly Mads.

Fresh out of prison, violent neo-Nazi Adam is sentenced to community service at a remote country church run by Ivan, an impossibly optimistic priest who seems determined to see the good in absolutely everyone. The church is already home to a kleptomaniac, a recovering alcoholic and a former tennis player with a penchant for armed robbery. Adam quickly becomes convinced that Ivan's relentless optimism is either an act of extraordinary kindness or a sign that he's completely lost his mind.

Like so much of Anders Thomas Jensen's work, ADAM'S APPLES is fascinated by broken people trying to build meaningful lives despite overwhelming evidence that they probably shouldn't be trusted to do so. What begins as an outrageous black comedy gradually evolves into something stranger, deeper and unexpectedly moving, touching on faith, forgiveness, trauma, redemption and the stories we tell ourselves in order to keep going.

Mads Mikkelsen's performance is unlike almost anything else in his career. Ivan is gentle, endlessly patient and almost supernaturally hopeful, refusing to let cruelty or tragedy define the people around him. Whether you see him as a saint, a fool or something in between is one of the film's greatest pleasures.

Hilarious, blasphemous and quietly profound, ADAM'S APPLES has grown into one of the most beloved Danish films of the twenty-first century. It remains the film that many Danish audiences consider Anders Thomas Jensen's masterpiece.