Oskar & Josefine

When you are used to get great things, and you expect them again, the average won't satisfy you.

This happened to me when I saw this Danish movie. As a person who adores movies from Northern Europe, especially when it comes to children in movies (regardless if it is a kid's movie or an adult drama with kids in important roles), and finding Danish movies usually even better than their northern neighbors, I expected too much.

Oskar & Josefine is made after a TV serial as a sequel. Though it is more than obvious throughout the movie, there is no problem to understand the plot because of the introduction sufficient to those who haven't seen the serial (like me).

The serial was a fairy tale for younger kids. The actors in the movie are a bit older, and so are the characters, they are a boy and girl who are in love and going on vacation together (though they go to boy's grandparents and though it is Denmark, we can assume that the authors aren't persuading us they are 12). But the plot is again a fantasy in a fairy tale style, so the target audience appears to be rather unclear. Kids who watch the movie must have some knowledge of history and other subjects (not easy for 9 or 10 years old, who would maybe otherwise be interested in such a fairy tale), but the knowledge of characters is also sometimes surprisingly weak. Just for example, Josefine, a girl old enough to go with her boyfriend on vacation, and who has already saved Jesus and Christianity (in serial) doesn't know what antibiotics are.

Movie for younger kids, though a fairy tale, can still be enjoyable for the whole family. Ronja Rövardotter maybe pushed the standards unreachably high, but it's not the only good one. This one is watchable, but nothing more.

I have another problem with Oskar & Josefine. Teenager traveling through time in North European movie reminds me in a second on Sofies verden, unbelievably intelligent movie (for a bit older audience, again the one very suitable for adults as well), who succeeded on different levels so can be watched as an adventure (from early years, though preteens might be bored), SF (not for hard-core fans), semi-documentary (a lot of facts that can make adults repeat their history and philosophy lessons) and a real art movie with references from Carroll's Alice to Fahrenheit 451. People who haven't seen Sophies verden are in advantage when watching Oskar & Josefine, because they won't compare these two movies (and the latter is weaker in any aspect you analyze).

The choice of actors was not perfect either. Not only age-plot relation, but their acting wasn't impressive as Danish (and Scandinavian) kids usually act. There is a strong hollywoodisation of Danish cinema in new millennium. But the work with young actors has never lost its quality that hasn't been achieved almost anywhere else. Pernille Kaae Hoier is no Sarah Juel Werner or Line Kruse - but this role would be perfect for Julie Zangenberg, whose age would fit as well. Instead of Mikkel Konyher I would prefer to see Adam Gilbert Jespersen or Anastasios Soulis (from Sweden, but borders were never a problem in North Europe), however as a couple Julia Krohn and Bernhard Naglestad from Norwegian movie Ikke naken would fit the best.

On the other hand, adult actors played just the way this movie needed. Average photography and music won't be remembered after the closing credits.

So if you are not familiar with Danish movies, don't start with this one. You might give up with further explorations, what would be a great loss considering how great Danish cinematography is.

Oskar and Josefine (released in Russia as Thorsen's Medallion) is a surprisingly likable European family/fantasy film I randomly picked up in a videostore. Much later I found that it's a sort of sequel to a very popular and successful Danish TV series "Jesus and Josefine" but of course I've never heard of it before. In short words it's a Christian related story of a girl Josefine who with her friend Oskar come to the past and meet Jesus who at that time is just a young boy. Some reckless acts lead to ultimate changes in future and Josefine must try to fix everything before it will be too late.

After a rather short introduction of the above mentioned past events we meet our heroes Oskar and Josefine at the railway station in Copenhagen. Now the friends are on vacations and they are going to countryside to spend summer at Oskar grandparents' farm. The place looked quite and beautiful until Josefine met Thorsen, the old man who gave her time machine and whom she eventually has defeated in original TV series. This time he is full of remorse and persuaded Josefine to take another gift, a magic medallion which can bring her through the time and back home but only for three times. Accidentally Oskar and Josefine come to the past and meet Oskar's ancestors who lived at the same farm 400 years ago. However one act of kindness from modern girl creates a chain of unexpected events that changed course of the past and even threatens Oskar's existence in this world. The game becomes too dangerous and now two children with a help of new friends have to find a way to resolve the problem and return home.

I don't know if it sounds any promising or not but I really enjoyed Oskar and Josefine. The production quality is pretty good all over the film. It was filmed in different locations in Denmark and everything looks more or less plain and simple. Hovewer from the first minutes it's also easy to see that there is always something beyond that. With careful camera work and light even ordinary things and places become rather extraordinary and memorable. What is also important is that visuals are not overused, they are just where it's necessary for the story and their quality is acceptable and convincing, particularly for a low budget film.

The same thing is about the plot, where "acceptable" is definitely a key word. Of course with a close look it's not too hard to find some minor logical problems and sometimes the plot unrolls itself too smoothly and straightforward but I don't want to be harsh on it. What's even more I don't need it because good points easily outweigh all possible drawbacks. The journey of two likable characters is not just a shallow fantasy adventure, it's a story of moral values, loyalty, friendship and courage against cruelty, ignorance and superstitions.

With two emotional and memorable performances of leading actors (Pernille Kaae Høier and Mikkel Konyher) Oskar and Josefine become an enjoyable 80 minutes film that is definitely a worthy choice for family audience all over the world. It's also nice to see that European filmmakers are ready to invest money into family film-making even sometimes without strong hopes for commercial success. I'm glad that this time they succeeded and the film become a solid hit in Denmark. Definitely a worthy effort.

8 out of 10