"Tove's Room" takes place in Copenhagen in the 1960s where Tove Ditlevsen (Paprika Steen), one of the greatest female poets and authors of her time, is waiting a guest for lunch; the younger Modernist writer Klaus Rifbjerg (Joachim Fjelstrup) who is interested in discussing their common passion in litterature. Tove's husband Victor Andreasen (Lars Brygmann), who is the chief editor of Ekstra-Bladet, is also at home after his mistress has cancelled their appointment, but he is not excited for the company of Rifbjerg, as he suspect him of having an affair with Tove. However, he participate the lunch, where Rifbjerg ends up being the key witness to their dysfunctional and toxic relationship, where there isn't that far a distance between love and hate, and where sweet compliments are mixed in with malicious sarcasm from both parts.
This movie is based on a popular play by the same name and is somewhat based on the marriage between Tove Ditlevsen and Victor Andreasen who in real life could be extremely cruel to each other. It is rather brutal to watch at times and you end up not taking anyones' side in a conflict best described as intellectual masturbation bordering on verbal and physical abuse. However, the dark humor is perfectly mixed in with the more serious subject matter, and the acting from both Paprika Steen and Lars Brygmann is among the best performances I've seen from both actors.
