Teddy Bear

A muscle-bound momma’s boy goes looking for love in this unexpectedly sweet drama from writer-director Mads Matthiesen. Approaching 40, bodybuilder Dennis (Kim Kold) has pushed himself to the pinnacle of physical perfection but remains emotionally stunted. Still living with his domineering mother Ingrid (Elsebeth Steentoft, her birdlike frame belying her mama-bear disposition), his inept attempts to land his first girlfriend are meeting with little success. After his uncle returns from Thailand with a young bride in tow, Dennis cobbles together a cover story for Ingrid’s benefit and jets off to Asia.

Eliciting an understated performance from the monumental Kold, Matthiesen also lends emotional nuance to what could’ve been played as a straightforward sturgeon-out-of-water comedy. After seeing Dennis completely in his element at a Copenhagen gym—in scenes that rival Magic Mike for 2012’s finest instances of male bonding—we grow fully invested in his bid to discover similar intimacy with Toi (Lamaiporn Hougaard), the dream girl he stumbles across amidst Pattaya’s nightmarish sex-tourism scene.

"The bodybuilder Kim Kold doesn’t loom… he towers… A hulking contradiction tucked under a stratum of ropy muscle, his Dennis is at once massive and passive, as big as a house and shy as a mouse. He needs to roar."—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times