Trine Dyrholm is one of Europe’s finest and hardest-working actors, though she is hardly a household name for viewers beyond her homeland, Denmark. For those who follow Nordic cinema, especially Denmark’s prolific early 00s output, she would be familiar from features such as Festen, In Your Hands and In a Better World. One of those actors who sinks deep into her role, she is especially known for a capacity to play troubled, complex women; her part in Birthday Girl fits that brief to a tee.
A tight little melodrama written and directed by Michael Noer (R, Before the Frost), the film calculates its provocation precisely as it lays out a murky crime that will spark post-viewing debate. Dyrholm plays Nanna, a working-class Danish woman rocking a metric ton of blond hair extensions and huge false eyelashes who longs to heal her imperfect relationship with daughter Cille (Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl). The latter has apparently lived with her wealthy father, Nanna’s ex, ever since the divorce.
