Adrian Rawlins, Emily Watson, Jean-Marc Barr

The revolutionary Dogma 95 school of filmmaking washed up on American shores with this intense European drama starring Emily Watson as Bess, a naïve Scotswoman who's convinced that God will heal her p...( read more  read more... )aralyzed husband (Stellan Skarsgård) if she has sex with other men. Director Lars von Trier shot the film using only available light, handheld cameras and no musical score; the result is a stunning, nakedly emotional film.

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91% liked it

25,482 ratings

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85% liked it

40 critics

R, 2 hrs. 38 min.

Directed by: Lars von Trier

Release Date: November 29, 1996

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DVD Release Date: July 26, 2005

Stats: 1,355 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (1,355)


  • September 13, 2009
    I wish I could find the words to review this film and talk about it for days. But there are just some movies that no matter what you say about them, it just isn't enough. Brilliantly stunning performances (I'd bow to Emily Watson if I saw her), in what is all together for me Lars...( read more) Von Trier's best film. A heart-breaking story about the power of love. Explosive and able to bring you to your knees. Simply grand cinema.
  • September 2, 2009
    Probably the most underrated, overlooked and misunderstood film of all time. Don't let the awful American poster put you off either, because this is without a doubt the most beautiful film made in the last 25 years. Its subject matter, pace and Dogma style puts many people off, a...( read more)nd to be fair it not everybodies cup of tea, but give it a chance. The last scene, in my opinion, is the best ever in the history of Cinema, a bold statement I know by I stand by it! Brilliant!
  • January 7, 2009
    Although the cover of the dvd looks like something Richard Gere may star in, make no mistake...Lars von Trier has made a great film with stunning performances and dramatic intensity. In addition to its' message about sacrificial love, Breaking the Waves reveals the contrast betwe...( read more)en the repression of some types of religion and the individual spirituality.

    A simple summary doesn't really give you a feel for it. You have to feel the motivations through the Watson character, and you have to feel with her that she is always trying to do the right thing, out of love. She somehow pulls that off and allows you to understand her completely, becoming vulnerable in every way.

    Holy shit, this is a heavy film.
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  • November 6, 2008
    The Von Trier way of film making is always fascinating, usually not only due to the stories he has to tell but also the way he tells them. Breaking the Waves is simple compared to his other works (Dogville, Dancer in the Dark) but all the better for it. Watson plays a highly reli...( read more)gious and very naive young woman who enters a marriage. She is a simple woman who may or may not talk directly to God. Everything is handled brilliantly from the heart warming marriage to the sweet awkwardness of the sexual encounters. As Watson becomes selfish in her love the film becomes darker but this just allows for a more beautiful ending. The fantastically grainy look really makes it seem like a slice of real life. Characters aren't quirky and there is a severe lack of happiness. The setting on a religiously strict island adds to the tension and fight within Bess as she fights for a love of God and her man but also the love she wishes to feel herself.
  • October 4, 2008
    I don't really feel like giving this film much credit, but for all its hatefulness and misogyny and its impossibly warped view of the world, it does have a few strengths. Emily Watson's performance is one of them; it's nice to think that her Oscar nomination is appropriate reward...( read more) for the dignity she sacrificed here, weeping hysterically in every other scene and having eerie channeled dialogues with God in others. It is to her tremendous credit that she pulls them off, but again, this role is absolutely degrading. Bess is merely a conduit for Lars von Trier's inflamed "torturing good-hearted women" fetish. There's nothing to show for this movie except for the systematic destruction of a naive, slightly unbalanced woman and everything she loves.

    For a movie to have depth, it must first say something, and Breaking the Waves simply doesn't. The most you could probably ascribe to it is as a dialectic on Christianity, but the movie spins so far off its axis that it's completely ineffective for this purpose. If religion is futile, how do you explain Bess' sacrifice and the resulting consequence? The final few seconds of the movie? You can take it a step further and hone it into a faith vs. organized religion argument, but Bess is unironically colored as insane for the faith she exhibits. The movie is just looking for excuses to kick her while she's down and trying to make it seem purposeful.

    On an ideological basis, I'd have given this movie only one star. It is well-made and reasonably gripping on a narrative level, but only in the way that you can't turn away from a train wreck. Emily Watson's performance earns it another. If this movie doesn't imprint her name on the mind of any cinephile, nothing will. Past that, Breaking the Waves' value ends.

    Perhaps the greatest irony of all in the film is that the license plate on Bess' moped says "LOL."
  • November 3, 2009
    If you think this movie is good, you can check "Dancer in the Dark". I, myself couldn't understand why this director makes this kind of movies.
  • October 28, 2009
    An elegy of a passionate,disproportionate nonetheless relationship,it's not that a divine creature could have controlled the subsequent actions of Bess,Von Trier IS the maestro who doesn't takes sides for all that matters.he preferably speaks through an alarm clock,the one which ...( read more)vitalizes our inner strength and where religion is (arguably) the "foreigner".
  • October 24, 2009
    WEB-LETTERBOX. Magnífica y depurada alegoría que tiene la fortuna de contar con un reparto de primera. No solo Emily Watson se destaca, sino también Stellan Skarsgaard y, más aún, Katrin Cartlidge. Es asombrosamente precisa en su exploración de la dimensión espiritual de una pers...( read more)ona psicológicamente inadaptada. / Magnificent and pure allegory that has the fortune of boasting a great cast. Not just Emily Watson stands out, but also Stellan Skarsgaard and, even more, Katrin Cartlidge. It is amazingly precise in exploring the spiritual dimension of a psychologically maladjusted person.
  • October 23, 2009
    Deeply tragic and still boring. I come to think I simply don't like Lars von Triers movies with these unbearable minimalistic conversations.
  • October 14, 2009
    It is not my favourite Lars von Trier, I much prefer his America trilogy over his Golden heart trilogy (of which this movie is the third), because of the former being more conceptual and I think that fits more nicely (as in being contradictive) into von Trier's radical views.

    E...( read more)mily Watson is mesmerizingly brilliant in this movie, and I think she should have gotten more praise for her performance, not even in the form of an Academy Award (which went to Frances McDormand) but in general. She is a very underappreciated actress. The rest of the cast was solid and not as illustrious as in other von Trier movies (such as Dogville or Manderlay). Cinematography was top notch but the basic premise of the movie (while not its execution) is the apogee of the movie. Both very human and inhuman at the same time, the movie depicts a dance to a song of life that is both tragic and full of love, and while it is utterly bizarre and perverted we should all be able to relate to it, as the most basic human emotions bring the most extreme with them usually. The ending of the movie pushed the film into a high quality tier for me, but I do not want to spoil it. It is highly watchable and my rating predominantly relates to the other von Trier films and is highly relative.

Comments


  • KLFilmmaker
    October 8, 2006
    You must see this. Von Trier' other work is pretty interesting and moving too.

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Breaking the Waves Trivia


  • 'Breaking the Waves' takes place in Scotland. It's about a strange girl, her relationship with God, and how she tries to cure her husband's paralysis. It stars this actress in her stunning film debut.   Answer »
  • Name the movie that garnered Emily Watson's first Oscar nomination.  Answer »
  • What actor plays in the following films: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Breaking the Waves Good Will Hunting Exorcist: The Beginning  Answer »
  • A girl gets married to a foreigner who gets severely injured. He ends up in a hospital and she tries to save him with a bit of sexual healing.  Answer »

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