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When is a Dogme movie not a Dogme movie? Danish director Annette K Olesen's debut feature is an improvisational family drama shot on digital video that recalls such minor classics as "Festen", "Mifune", and "Italian for Beginners".
Yet it's not been given a Dogme certificate, even though it's been produced by Lars von Trier's production company.
No doubt this is because "Minor Mishaps" is little more than an underwhelming attempt to jump on the Dogme95 bandwagon... and one that's about as unexciting as its title suggests.
After the mother of a Copenhagan family is killed in a road accident, her husband and three grown-up children reunite for the funeral.
As the dysfunctional family interacts, Olesen follows each of these characters' very different stories as they try and come to terms with their mother's death and their own need to make sense of their lives.
Self-consciously using British director Mike Leigh's 'method' of letting actors improvise their characters before the script was written, "Minor Mishaps" desperately wants to be taken seriously.
But its cracked characters, incest subplot, and shaky handheld digital video footage blown up onto 35mm film stock induce nothing but d茅j脿 vu.
In its prime, the Dogme95 movement provided a much needed wake-up call to international cinema, proving that it was possible to make challenging, intelligent films without relying on big budgets, special effects, or action set-pieces.
But if films like "Minor Mishaps" continue to water it down into bland melodramas, we may well forget what made it such a force to be reckoned with.
In Danish with English subtitles.
