Teddy Bear (2012)

          The essential plot rundown:  A shy bodybuilding has trouble finding love.  I really enjoyed this movie.  Normally, people would think a person looking like Dennis (Kim Kold) would be outgoing and confident.  So, it was really interesting to see the spirit of a extremely shy person inside this monstrous frame.  The mixing of shyness with size created an intriguing dynamic between Dennis and the women he encounters, who are literally a third his size.  It is a little slow moving, but you do really get to know Dennis and his struggles.

          In the movie, Dennis encounters essentially two different problems:  dating and lying to his mother.  As Dennis resolves the first, this complicates things and creates the second problem.  As he was trying to overcome his shyness and meet girls, I couldn't help but feel bad during his failures and to encourage him to keep at it.  However, as he entered into the second part of the movie, he started doing things that I questioned.  I found myself asking "Why, Dennis?!  No, what are you doing?  Dennis!"  I was rooting for him the whole time to clean up the mess he made and set things straight.  Kim did an excellent job portraying the meek giant, Dennis.  I found his acting sincere.  I felt his pain as I watched him struggle to meet girls. He is looking for real love but finds women only interested in sex.  He is clearly uncomfortable with their advances.

          One of the things that bothered me was how he overcame his problems in meeting girls.  It felt a little too rushed; too quick of a change.  One minute he's barely making conversation and the next he's moving in for a kiss.  Another thing bothered me, but I didn't notice it until after the movie.  He is looking for love, but he is sent to a place filled with lust.  He is in several situations where women make advances towards him sexually.  He seems only interested in going on a date whereas the women have something totally different in mind.  At first, I thought he was just naive, misinterpreting the women's messages until things got too uncomfortable.  Poor guy, he doesn't even know whats happening.  However, afterwards I was thinking, and he had to have know what he was getting into before he left.  He had have known what type of women these were.  Maybe I mistook his shyness for naivety.  Now, I can't decide which one it is.

         Overall, it is a film worth watching.  You get to care to Dennis and root for him during the whole thing.  It was rewarding to watch his struggles and consequent growth.  Teddy Bear, directed by Mads Matthiesen, won the 2012 World Cinema Directing Award, Dramatic.

My friends and I drove to SLC to see it

     But that's just my opinion...