review for Bungalow on AllMovie

Ulrich Köhler's Bungalow is a laconically amusing deadpan comedy, but with an undercurrent of anger and despair that lends it an edge. Lennie Burmeister, onscreen for virtually the entire film, makes a boldly exhibitionist and very promising feature debut, capturing just the right mix of unfocused resentment and boredom as Paul, a feckless army deserter who develops a crush on his brother's girlfriend. Paul is an unusually passive and sullen protagonist -- he can't even muster the energy to masturbate -- but Köhler and Burmeister manage to make him believably human, gratingly solipsistic, but strangely likeable. His desertion seems to occur capriciously -- almost accidentally. Tired of struggling to stay awake on the back of an army transport truck, he travels to his family's country bungalow, and tries to stay awake there. Paul's motivations remain cloudy. It seems that his attraction to Lene (an appealing Trine Dyrholm) is rooted more in his hostility toward his more responsible brother, Max (Devid Striesow), than on his fascination with her. She seems like a way to pass the time until the other shoe drops more than a genuine love interest. For her part, she's a struggling actress, a Danish stranger in a strange land, and she's flattered by Paul's attentions, finding his irresponsibility far more amusing than Max does. "You've only known him for two days," Max tells her at one point, "On the third, you'll want to kill him." As Paul lackadaisically maneuvers to seduce her, it becomes clear that he has more control over his destiny than was initially apparent. While the leisurely paced, but consistently interesting film flirts with nihilism, its ambiguous ending is oddly hopeful.