I had this down as a documentary about a shy bodybuilder going out on a date with a girl he knows via the local gym . You can perhaps understand my mistake . I consciously avoid reading up on a short in case I get prejudiced about what I'm about to watch alongside the write up giving away important plot turns etc . It wasn't until about four minutes in to the running time that this Danish short was a drama and not a documentary
Now I've got to admit I'm not totally clued up about Danish cinema . From the little ones I have seen they tend to be hard hitting and so totally dark and gloomy they'll have you reaching for anti-depressants . In fact there does seem to be a certain level of irony that the main reason Denmark was in the news in recent years was down to an artist drawing cartons of the prophet Mohamed . Perhaps the headlines might be more accurate in pointing out someone in Demark has a sense of humour shock horror ? In other words DENNIS is something of a great surprise . It's similar in premise to that highly regarded Ronnie Corbett comedy from the early 1980s called SORRY where middle aged Timothy Lumbsden finds himself still living at home with his parents who still regard him as a child . That said SORRY was more interested in belly laughs while DENNIS concentrates on subtlety and there's long dramatic pauses as the audience are allowed to digest the information on screen and let them realise this isn't so much a situation comedy but something far more blackly comical where if we're totally honest when we stop to think about it there's not anything funny at all about the situations featured . In short it's a black comedy that carries a hard punch