From NetFlix:
Physically massive but shy and socially inept, a 38-year-old Danish bodybuilder longs to fall in love — but finds it impossible under the disapproving eye of his mother. Traveling to Thailand, he learns some unexpected lessons about life and love.
Imagine a 38-year-old giant bodybuilder who has yet to break away from his domineering and physically tiny white-haired shriveled old mother. She uses every trick in the book to keep him from becoming independent. Throughout this film I was rooting for this guy to escape and find a wife.
Here is a quote from IMDB about the actor Kim Kold:
Kim Kold is a former football (soccer) goalkeeper, who in 1993 at 27 years of age suffered a serious injury in his Achilles tendon. He was sent to the gym doing rehabilitation training. He took up an interest in bodybuilding and started competing in 1997. He won the Danish National Bodybuilding Championship in 2006.
In the film actors speak Danish and English. In fact their English is fluent and often without accent. They speak English when it is necessary to have a common language, for example in Thailand among [sex] tourists. But when Dennis (Kim Kold) speaks Danish it seems as if he is mumbling. In fact I could not even hear consonants. But there is a point here. Dennis is so shy and understated that he almost whispers throughout the film. Even when his clinging mother is her nastiest Dennis never raises his voice to her. More than that, he seems either afraid of her or is making a conscious effort to not offend her. Dennis is a kind, moral, gentle giant who has no idea how to break away and find a woman to love.
Enter a friend who has already found a wife in Thailand. He tells Dennis how to get to Thailand and whom to contact. Unfortunately, the contact is involved in sex tourism and introduces Dennis to several prostitutes. But Dennis is so decent and sincere that he walks away from that scene in disgust. Finally he finds a gym and fellow bodybuilders who recognize him and invite him to join them for a social evening. There he is introduced to the widow owner of the gym. And the rest is history once we get past certain difficulties, which means “mommy dearest”.
Kim Kold is certainly not an actor. But whoever directed him never missed a beat. Dennis behaves consistently and as you would expect him to behave throughout. He gives the impression that at 38 he is still a virgin. There is no sex in the film but there are scenes where we feel sorry and embarrassed for Dennis who flees from sexual advances on the part of several women.
Yes, Dennis is a good guy. And yet he tells lies to his mother from beginning to end. He speaks and looks at her sincerely and seems to be shamefully admonished by his mother and yet “lies like a rug”.
This quiet and slow film is not for everyone. Mostly it is about rooting for a well-meaning underdog.
