Truly Human is a drolly entertaining Dogme 95 film that avoids some cheap laughs, but ends up settling for easy sentimentality. In the tradition of Being There and Kaspar Hauser, the film thrusts a naïve, simpleminded, and goodhearted protagonist (Nicolaj Kaas) into a cold, cruel world. Like Steven Spielberg's A.I., it also purports to be an examination of what makes us human. In the end, it works best as a goofy fish-out-of-water comedy. Kaas is, at first, a blank slate. He initially seems mildly creepy, perhaps even threatening -- it seems possible that he's come to seek vengeance against Lise's (Line Kruse) selfish yuppie parents -- so it's understandable that those around him are disturbed by his seemingly unnatural attraction to small children. But Kaas and writer-director Ake Sandgren do a credible job of developing the character as a good-natured manchild. One of the film's funniest and most trenchant moments is basically a throwaway. Having accidentally given himself the name "Ahmed," Kaas is treated like an Arab refugee (despite his distinctively Nordic looks), and when he inadvertently damages the car of his manipulative boss, Mr. Stromboli (Troels Munk II), Stromboli loses his temper, and calls Kaas a "wog bastard," bringing up intriguing theoretical implications about the nature of racism and race. The acting in the film is generally very good, in the emphatic Dogme style, and it's nice to see a fantasy film that relies on an alien point of view, rather than special effects. At its best moments, it invokes John Carpenter's Starman, but with a slight social satirical edge. But being a fairy tale, it doesn't offer much in the way of moral or emotional complexity, and the ambiguous ending seems a bit cheap and dishonest, so one comes away feeling somewhat let down.
by Josh Ralske
review
