Reminds me of the best of Bergman’s chamber dramas. Nerves are exposed, hearts opened and emotions bared, all under Bier’s X-ray cameras.

Unusual and provocative, Open Hearts is a genuine romantic drama written and delivered with heart-wrenching honesty.

A small-scale domestic drama with large-scale feeling.

One instance where Dogme's subtraction of extraneous elements turns out to be a plus.

Refreshingly honest.

Has the wherewithal to follow through on its dramatic dalliances, no matter how gloomy the prospect.

Open Hearts is far from inaccessible, but it demands a higher level of concentration than most big-budget movies do. The drama exists in a glance or a nod, or in a slight hesitation in speech.

Director Susanne Bier and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen draw attention away from the famous Dogme gimmick... and pull us into a surprisingly powerful emotional snafu.

What Open Hearts does best is capture the raw, frank essence of hurt.

There is no doubting the heart-rending impact of the story. But because it is made clear from the start that there is no chance of an uplifting ending, viewers may grow restless.