janniklindquist Review of The Promised Land

The Promised Land (2023)

Great actors, very bad script and directing

[2/10 · 7 November 2023]

In my opinion, every single actor in this movie deserves huge credit for trying to bring a horrible script to life. Because of the bad script writing all the characters come across as extremely wooden and/or one dimensional: the silent, determined hero, the proud uncompromising peasant woman, the extremely evil and extremely powerful nobleman, the charming and exotic gypsy girl etc etc. There's very little actual development of the characters - the story just jumps a few years and then claims that characters have changed their mindset. Add to this that all the Danish actors talks as if the movie takes place in central Copenhagen in 2023. Curiously, the plot is also extremely similar to classic westerns such as Shane. That's not bad thing in itself, though. I would greatly appreciate a Danish 18th century "western". The cast could certainly have delivered that - and more - if the script writer and the director had been more honest and ambitious.