In a Better World (Danish: Hævnen, "The Revenge") is a 2010 film from Denmark, directed by Susanne Bier, and starring Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, and Ulrich Thomsen.
It focuses on two young boys and their families. Elias, who has prominent front teeth and braces, and who comes from Sweden, is ruthlessly picked on and bullied by the other kids at school. His parents are Anton and Marianne, who are both doctors. They are separated and contemplating divorce after Anton had an affair.
Christian's situation is even more tragic. Christian was living in London until his mother was diagnosed with cancer. His mother having recently died, Christian and his father Claus have moved back to Denmark to live with Christian's grandmother. Christian is filled with anger and hostility at the world after the death of his mother. The two boys are drawn to each other — with unfortunate consequences.
A subplot deals with Anton's adventures as a Doctors Without Borders-style doctor, ministering to people in Sudanese refugee camps, and encountering a savage warlord.
Tropes:
- Ask a Stupid Question...: Marianne isn't in the mood for small talk when Anton calls her up.Anton: What are you doing?
Marianne: I'm out clubbing with the Laudrup brothers, Anton.note - Body Horror: When the Big Man comes to Anton's refugee camp, he has a ghastly open leg wound with worms in it.
- Book Ends: Begins and ends with Anton in Africa treating the locals.
- The Bully: Sofus, who leads a gang of creeps at the school that pick on Elias. Christian takes violent action to stop it.
- Creepy Child: Of course there's a reason for it, as Christian is having a lot of difficulty dealing with his mother's death. Still, he is a seething ball of hostility with a Death Glare permanently etched on his face. He viciously assaults Sofus with a bicycle pump and for good measure pulls out a knife and brings it to his throat. Then he starts building pipe bombs. He's pretty creepy.
- Combat Pragmatist: Christian might be physically smaller than Sofus, but he still handily manages to subdue the bully, when he ambushes him from behind while using a bicycle pump as an Improvised Weapon, and then scares him into submission while he is on the floor by holding a knife to his throat.
- Cycle of Revenge: Discussed, Christian, after being pushed down by Sofus, local schoolyard bully, assaults the bully the next day, and beats him viciously with a bicycle pump before threatening him with a knife to the throat. Claus call him out on his actions by referencing this trope, but Christian answers back that if you show the other party that you are too scary be messed with, they will be too afraid to ever consider an act of retaliation. In the case of Sofus, Christian is right. However, Christian's worldview later comes back to bite him, it leads him to unintentionally injure Elias.Claus: If you hit him, then he hits you, and then it never ends!
Christian: (coldly) Not if you hit hard enough the first time. - Defeat Means Friendship: Christian viciously beats Sofus. Not only does this put a stop to the bullying, but Sofus is friends with Christian afterwards.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After quite a bit of angst and eventually Elias almost getting killed, Anton and Marianne get back together and Christian reconciles with his father.
- Gang of Bullies: Sofus leads a whole crowd of bullies that abuse Elias regularly.
- Jump Cut: Used several times in the film to underscore moments of high emotion, tension, or stress. One scene has two Jump Cuts with Marianne as she hovers panicked outside while the doctors operate on Elias. Another scene uses several Jump Cuts afterward, as Marianne is standing vigil over her unconscious son in his hospital bed.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Anton managed to overcome his revulsion and treat the Big Man, a vicious warlord. But after the Big Man makes some horrible disgusting comments about a young woman his goons murdered, an enraged Anton flings him out of the camp and into the arms of the refugees, who promptly beat him to death.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Discussed Trope. Claus talks about the futility of the Cycle of Revenge, saying "where does it end?" Anton does this literally, going back to the mechanic who hit him in the park, allowing the mechanic to slap him twice more in the face, and telling the kids that the mechanic is nothing more than a bullying creep. It backfires with Christian, who perceives his friend's father as weak.
