Directed by Lars von Trier. Written by Peter Asmussen and Lars von Trier
The limits of faith, devotion, belief, and love are tested in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, the story of a deeply religious woman whose love for her husband sees her sacrifice herself and her values in the hopes of undoing his critical injury.
Emily Waton is Bess McNeill, devoted servant of the church and a member of an extremely patriarchal sect. Women are not allowed to speak at the congregation, and marriages must be sanctified by the “elders” before they can take place. One such marriage is Bess’s, who has gotten engaged in a whirlwind affair to Jan, a worker on the offshore oil rig and therefore an outsider. After some humming and hawing behind closed doors, they allow it.
Bess’s family are taken aback by the engagement as well. Dodo, her sister-in-law is cautious, knowing Bess to be a meek and selfless person whose nervous disposition makes her both an easy target and vulnerable. Her love for her sister-in-law is palpable.
Bess loves Jan so, so much, and Watson’s astounding performance as Bess starts with a child’s smitten affection. She giddily smirks the first night in the wedding bed listening to Jan’s snores, and her eyes are as big as saucers taking in the new world of being with (and in love with) Jan. On the shadow side of this coin, Bess is distraught when Jan has to leave, throwing tantrums and obsessing over his return.
Watson’s performance deepens from here, adding intensity and layers as Bess goes through a crisis of conscience when Jan suffers from an accident which paralyzes him, to a crisis of faith when Jan makes an indecent proposal to her, to a resolute commitment to this love she feels so keenly despite what it makes her do.
There’s something elemental to Breaking the Waves in this regard, and the edge upon which von Trier puts these feelings makes for a wrenching watch. These types of devotion, be they learned or innate, have such power over us, and von Trier’s depiction has real depth of feeling to it, even if it’s visually unassuming, and that power rests in the room he gives his performers to deliver their lines and the intent behind them.
As an immediate impression, it’s hard to watch a person give themself away like Bess does, especially because she is an innocent. Like a child being coerced into wrongdoing, there’s something particularly upsetting about watching someone’s virtues get taken advantage of to this extent, and bless Watson for lending credence to a performance that very easily could overdo it. In a cast where Stellan Skarsgård and Katrin Cartlidge also shine as Jan and Dodo, it’s still Watson’s tide that raises all boats.
Breaking the Waves isn’t an extravagant cinematic affair, it’s too intent on its characters for that, but it does also retain von Trier’s tongue-in-cheek style. His movie isn’t without controversy both in its subject matter and treatment thereof, but underneath the small winks and tricks is a humanity that later Trier movies will go on to miss. Deep within the clasped praying hands of Breaking the Waves there is a movie grappling with life’s big emotions and an acute interest in them. One that believes in the redemptive power of love between people and what it will endure.
Mikkel Frederiksen 