I finally got a chance to watch a movie last week...it had been over a month! This movie tells the story of two young boys that fall in love, one a post-pubescent student at a boarding school, the other the pre-pubescent son of the school's headmaster.
First, the movie is beautiful. The interaction between the two main characters is touching, and handled with tender care. The two young men (who are the actual ages they are portraying) are excellent and convincing in their roles...as are the other young actors who make up the rest of the students at the school. The interactions between all the characters in the movie are incredibly realistic...not sugar coated, or worse, over dramatized.
There are issues, however, with this movie that make it less than excellent. For one, the script is terribly fragmented. For a while, you forget that there is supposed to be a relationship developing between the two main characters. The main storyline gets lost amongst a jumble of other side stories going on inside and outside of the schools walls. While these side stories don't dull down the movie (on the contrary, they are often humorous and charming),they strip any semblance of order and purpose from the narrative.
The other issue is that all the other characters are either completely oblivious to the affection that Bo and Kim share (which is nearly impossible),or they don't care (which seems equally odd). While I've nothing against a story that is simple, innocent, and charming...you'd think that these two boys would suffer some of the hardships that come along with being young and gay. :giveup Overall, I applaud the movie for approaching it's subject material so openly, in a way that would NEVER be seen in an American film. The characters are engaging and a joy to watch. Too bad the story wasn't more cohesive. Still, worthy of a 7/10.
Plot summary
A student strike at a Danish boys school is the backdrop of YOU ARE NOT ALONE. The leisurely paced tale explores the relationship between 14 year-old Bo and Kim,11, the younger son of the stern boarding school headmaster. Mounting school tensions over the expulsion of a troubled student threaten to sabotage the tranquility of the school.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
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Beautiful and touching...but not absent of flaws.
Young Danish teens feeling out the world in the post-hippie era
Du er ikke alene has been too much advertised as a young gay film, but, in fact, we can see a warm and often funny depiction of life in a boarding school in the 1970ies, complemented with suitable music, realistic scenes and events (contrary to that the puritans think, for most people "adult" life begins before obtaining voting right),and pleasant, knowing approach. Child actors are credible and often in bold scenes, and Ove Sprogøe was one of the finest Danish actors anyway...
Although all this is ahead of my time, I am younger than those boys were in 1978, it is like a trip to history not long time ago, but seeming so far, prevailed by thick hairstyle, angular cars, and specific clothing which I have always found ugly :) Nevertheless, I am sure that open-minded people would appreciate the strengths of the film in question at present as well.
Danish Youth and Education
You Are Not Alone is an extraordinary film and one would not be surprised if it became a classic. The characters although not fully developed, much like the script, are nonetheless exceptional in that it sets the foundation for other similar works. Two young gay boys searching for understanding and acceptance, find love in a Danish private school. The film itself is sketchy with undeveloped nude scenes and hampered with an equally fragmented plot. Still rising above the script are the young actors Anders Agenso and Peter Bjerg who add a certain innocent vitality to an otherwise humdrum story. You'll enjoy the final sensual scene. It's the stuff dreams are made of. *****