The Inheritance

In this grim boardroom soap opera, Christoffer (Ulrich Thomsen) a young Danish restaurateur living happily with his wife in Stockholm, is called back to his homeland to save his late father's ailing steel company, ultimately losing his soul as a result of his executive decisions. Writer-director Per Fly's The Inheritance is essentially a dour European take on Dynasty or Dallas, about a man who sacrifices his ideals--along with his wife and child--in order to preserve the family business. His cost-cutting measures, urged on by his Lady Macbeth-like mother, not only destroy his marriage, but also earn him the enmity of his sister, whose husband he summarily fires (among others) from the firm. Ultimately his arrangement of a merger with a foreign competitor leads him to even betray the callous financial officer who's advised him along the way, and when we last see Christoffer, he's sunk to become everything he once despised, the depths of which are illustrated by his drunken assault on a maid in a French villa. While the performances are excellent, the actors are hamstrung by the script, which doesn't offer much insight into the ethical dilemmas that Fly seeks to dramatize, so that while this portrait of angst among the industrial bourgeoisie is as depressing as the gloomiest Ingmar Bergman film, it's nowhere near as enlightening. Optional. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Per Fly, a 55-minute “making-of” documentary, and an essay by film critic Richard Schickel. Bottom line: a fine extras package for a somewhat disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)