"Wedding" a cause for celebration

Filmgoers walk by promotional movie posters during the 31st Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - A filmmaker who excels in peeling back those delicate layers of human frailty, Denmark's Susanne Bier brings another powerful family portrait to the Toronto International Film Festival, which premiered her previous two films.

In the IFC Films release "After the Wedding," for which Bier again collaborated with her "Open Hearts" screenwriter, Anders Thomas Jensen, the ever-versatile Mads Mikkelsen plays Jacob, a lonely Dane who has dedicated his life to helping street kids in a struggling Indian orphanage.

Help is potentially on its way in the form of a generous offer from a wealthy businessman back in Copenhagen, with the proviso that Jacob return to meet his would-be benefactor in person.

But the gregarious, forceful Jorgen (Rolf Lassgard) proves to have more to offer him than a fat checkbook. Reluctantly agreeing to Jorgen's invitation to attend his daughter's wedding the next day, Jacob unwittingly opens a window on his long-shuttered past.

Bier again demonstrates just how misleading appearances can be as she artfully removes the veneers concealing the dark truths locked away by her intriguing characters.

And, again her cast proves adept at navigating the surface and those tricky undercurrents of deceit. While Mikkelsen and Lassgard are required to do the bulk of the emotional heavy lifting, young newcomer Stine Fischer Christensen, as Lassgard's sheltered daughter and Sidse Babett Knudsen as his emotionally reserved wife, turn in equally affecting, respectfully cliche-free performances.