"Under Stjerne på Himlen" is a good movie for what it is. It got to me multiple times and I appreciated it for what it was and what it did. But it is something I have seen over and over again. It feels awfully similar to "Dirch" (2011) a movie I adore and "Så længe jeg lever" (2018) both biopics with comedic leads that shows how and artist struggle with art and real life. And while "Dirch" succeeds at that, the others seem to try to imitate that success more than finding its own identity.
We follow musician Tommy Seebach the king of the international music grand prix. After the industry deems him done he fights to join the Grand Prix one last time with the song "Under stjernene på himlen". This challenges himself and his family to their extreme.
First of all my cinema experience. I was asked by the lady at the checking if I wanted to buy an extra soda for the movie, don't know why. The movie started on a stuck screen about pre-premier for a good while. Mid movie it crashed with picture then sound and people around me started to complain. What an experience. Anyways to the actual review.
The acting is really good here. I was surprised since there are some risky castings, but they worked great. Anders Matthesen plays so well as Tommy and delivers a very underplayed performance that works great for the movie. He can play charming and friendly but also as emotional disconnected as Tommy was from his family. Not all drunk acting works here and that is a huge part of the movie, but overall the performance is good. Same with Capser Phillipson as Keld Heick. A great nice performance that shows a very tolerable man.
That is a problem with the movie though. It falls into the classic biopic tropes and while I think Denmark is good at showing flawed humans, it still has its issues showing a totally wrong person. Tommy is a bad father and a terrible friend, and artist before anything else with a huge ego. But at the same time we have to throw in that he is not so bad, look he is nice to the kids, look how good his friends and family is to support him and really tolerate him. It´s hard because you want to show a holistic person, but at the same time, you want to tell a legacy. It is always a hard balance to have and the movie doesn't quite sussed at that. But it is nice to have a biopic not afraid to show that not everything was great and that this is not a perfect story with someone who was always right. A thing Denmark is good at with its biopics I think.
The story and themes are about art vs family, ego vs surroundings and the movie handles them well. To the point it got me emotional twice. I cared for this sad story and the people within it and it is a struggle to balance once legacy with just being alive. The whole problem Tommy clearly had through his life. The movie shows a fun balance between old vs new. A balance it ridicules both ways. While it makes fun of new rap music coming up in the 90s it says that Tommy hated being the old people musician he became and that is fun with you sit in a cinema surrounded by elderly people. It knows the sad truth that Tommy never really accepted about himself. He was going to pass and he was going to be muzak at some point.
The sound design is very good in the movie. The way it cuts out and in of music being played and worked on is great. Showing themes of heart vs job and connect/disconnect for the music, it´s very well made.
The movie attempts some higher art moments like "Dirch" but fails miserably at them. They should have stuck to a more grounded story instead of having the ending and the light moments and the lonely moments. They were too artsy for this movie and what it already established.
Sadly it feels like I have already seen this movie thrice before and that no doubt affects my overall enjoyment of the movie. It removes some originality to it in the worst ways possible.
While I sat close to the end and thought about what I just witnessed. Out comes Rasmus Seebach and signs "Under stjernene på himlen" to an audience saying "sing so my dad can hear it" and then the credits are again Rasmus singing the song about how his dysfunctional family made him. That took me out of the movie way fast and what a terrible way to end a movie about a pop icon with his new pop icon son taking over. The movie also has this angel with Rasmus really winking to the audience that it´s him, and that happens a lot in these biopics about stars and also in this one. Hints at something you know if you know and that can be rather tiresome since it has nothing to do with the movie but the audience of the movie, breaking some level of emersion.
I enjoyed my time with this movie, even though it is rather by the books. It had a good emotional core that got to me but needed some better set up like the alcoholism to really hammer everything home to its fullest. It is a movie that just works, but nothing much more than that.
