In a Better World (2010)

A combat surgeon finds his real problems are on the home front in In A Better World (2010). This Oscar winner for best foreign film of 2011 stars Mikael Persbrandt as Anton, a surgeon who divides his time between his home in Denmark and a refugee camp in Africa. While Anton has been away, his marriage to Marianne (Trine Dyrholm) has crumbled, and his 10-year-old son Elias (Markus Rygaard) barely knows him. Elias is more invested in his new friend Christian  (William Jøhnk Juels Nielsen), who protects him from bullies, than his parents, but Christian has a dark side- his mother recently died, and the shock has left the boy emotionally troubled. When Christian talks Elias into an act of revenge with potentially deadly consequences, both their and their parents’ relationships are tested. In a Better World is an undeniably bleak film, but Trine Dyrholm will turn that frown upside down when she lies on her stomach clad in sexy white panties 32 minutes in. In a Better World, she would lose the panties, but hey- we’ll take what we can get from this delicious Danish dish.