In A Better World, winner of this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, follows two Danish schoolboys and their parents up to the edge of a moral abyss and into ethical areas where they’ve never been. The film explores revenge, violence on behalf of a greater good, and parental responsibility and guilt while it entertains to the hilt. Intriguingly and credibly, director Susanne Bier (the original “Brothers,” far superior to it’s American version) ties together parallel stories. One involves the encounter of Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a pacifist, altruistic physician, with a Sudan-like country’s civil war; the other his bullied son’s rebelling at school against his vicious tormentors. The son, Elias (Marcus Rygaard) is delivered a petulant, fearless rescuer when Christian (a stunning performance by Willam Johnk Nielson) moves back into town after his mother’s death.

The kids begin to take action, propelled by Christian’s increasing nihilist reaction to the absence of his mom. Christian further makes an impression on Elias as a counterpoint to Anton’s own inaction in matters of standing up for himself in the face of being humiliated in front of the boys. Throw in a harrowing incident in Africa that forces Anton to make a no-win moral choice, and you’ve got a full plate of a film.

Does it verge on exploiting the plot’s schematics in almost handing us a too-close-for-comfort neatly wrapped parable package? Let’s not quibble. The critical backlash to this film ignores that it’s highly suspenseful, impeccably crafted, superbly acted, and quite thought provoking. My only quibble is they should have stuck with a more literal translation of the title: the straight scoop from the Danish is more like “Vengeance,” a subject on which Bier writes a whole new chapter.

8.5 out of 10

In A Better World, winner of this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar, follows two Danish schoolboys and their parents up to the edge of a moral abyss and into ethical areas where they’ve never been. The film explores revenge, violence on behalf of a greater good, and parental responsibility and guilt while it entertains to the hilt. Intriguingly and credibly, director Susanne Bier (the original “Brothers,” far superior to it’s American version) ties together parallel stories. One involves the encounter of Anton (Mikael Persbrandt), a pacifist, altruistic physician, with a Sudan-like country’s civil war; the other his bullied son’s rebelling at school against his vicious tormentors. The son, Elias (Marcus Rygaard) is delivered a petulant, fearless rescuer when Christian (a stunning performance by Willam Johnk Nielson) moves back into town after his mother’s death.

The kids begin to take action, propelled by Christian’s increasing nihilist reaction to the absence of his mom. Christian further makes an impression on Elias as a counterpoint to Anton’s own inaction in matters of standing up for himself in the face of being humiliated in front of the boys. Throw in a harrowing incident in Africa that forces Anton to make a no-win moral choice, and you’ve got a full plate of a film.

Does it verge on exploiting the plot’s schematics in almost handing us a too-close-for-comfort neatly wrapped parable package? Let’s not quibble. The critical backlash to this film ignores that it’s highly suspenseful, impeccably crafted, superbly acted, and quite thought provoking. My only quibble is they should have stuck with a more literal translation of the title: the straight scoop from the Danish is more like “Vengeance,” a subject on which Bier writes a whole new chapter.

8.5 out of 10