What Would You Sacrfice For Another Life?

THE DOOR (DVD)
Optimum Home Entertainment 

Release date: April 18th 2011
Certificate (UK): 15
Running time: 99 minutes
Year of production: 2009

Original language: German with English subtitles

Director: Anno Saul

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Jessica Schwarz, Heike Makatsch

Stories about parallel worlds have not only always fascinated me, but they’re the source for many of my endless daydreams.

Somewhere out there there’s another version of us, slightly different but essentially the same, following an entirely different path…wouldn’t you want to know if you had the chance? What would you change?

Well, The Door is a story which explores all of those ideas, but begins with the premise of a man who quite literally stumbles upon another world and ultimately grapples with the question “What would you sacrifice for another life?”

Based on the book ‘Die Damalstür‘ by Akif Pirinçci, we meet artist David Andernach (Mads Mikkelsen) who is struggling to come to terms with the death of his daughter, Leonie (Valeria Eisenbart) five years ago.

Now he’s divorced and plagued by guilt that he wasn’t there to save Leonie from drowning in the family pool.

After following a butterfly on a cold winter’s night, it leads him to a secret passageway. On the other side lies a parallel world, five years in the past.

It takes him right back to the day Leonie died, giving him the chance to change everything.

In doing so, David sets off a new chain of events which begins to unravel a conspiracy. It turns a miraculous opportunity into a quickly spiralling nightmare with each choice he makes.

Despite its shortcomings in explaining some of the characters’ motivations, The Door is entertaining with a strong lead performance from Mikkelsen, although it could have done with showing us a wider range of David’s emotions to balance the somewhat constant depressing mood of the film.

At times it’s reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Butterfly Effect (2004), but it’s worth a look if you’re curious to see what’s on the other side.

It’s incredibly unpredictable film and the twists at every corner left me wondering what’s going to happen next. Without the aid of special effects or a massive budget, it tells a compelling and unique story, even with its flaws.