User Reviews

"Mørke rum" or "Perpetual" is a Danish Danish-language live action short film from 2015, so it has its fifth anniversary this year. It was uploaded on Youtube in 2018 and has racked up a fairly impressive four million views since then. You can still watch it there with English subtitles. However, I'd say you shouldn't and I will elaborate on my thoughts why this film sucked (no pun intended!) in a second. The director is Peter Ahlén and he is also one of the two writers. This is the only film he made as the man in charge and his co-writer Stridbæk is equally inexperienced. Same is true about the lead actor who is not the most prolific. Probably a good thing for all of them because they do not seem to have a lot of talent. Admittedly, the actress who plays the protagonist's best friend is more experienced, but the one with the most experience in acting is Hjulmand, who plays the protagonist's love interest. The film stays comfortable over the half-minute mark, but still feels too long for it's own good. Let's be honest here: The story could have easily fit in half the running time and it would not have dragged the way it actually did here and there. We have a young gay man and he meets an older man (not too old) online and the two end up meeting at a sex club where they have sex. The boy develops feelings quickly, but the older guy only sees a boy toy in the young fella as we find out eventually, even if there are already indicators earlier. So there is also a bit of heartbreak here. Well, in theory. The movie never felt too emotional whatsoever, probably because the lead actor simply wasn't good. Not a great casting decision. Also the female protagonist was written in such a generic manner, like in a way that you find frequently in this kind of movies. She may or may not be attracted to the boy and she is shocked when she finds out he is gay, but deals with it and accepts it and supports him quickly. It's funny how they always have to talk to female best friends and those friends never know or even think so that their male buddy could be a homosexual. How well can they know them then? Certainly not as well as we are supposed to think. Anyway, the final scene was supposed to be touching with the oatmeal comment and the reference to when he had sex with the one he desires, but it went all kinds of wrong. It was not smart at all and yet it tried so hard to be intelligent and a nice framework. Before this scene actually I considered giving two stars more, but this oatmeal moment really showed the complete absence of talent and quality execution in general from everybody involved. Best would have been if this film had never been released. In its better moments it is just bland, in its weaker moments it is a mess. Also there is of course some nudity and pornographic material in here, at least in terms of butts. The dialogue writing is very poor too. When the two are talking before they have sex for the first time, the swimming quote from the older guy is just so bizarre. It made no sense. Nobody ever would have said this. And the reference about the size of the younger man's genital isn't much better. But really the most embarrassing thing is that they were apparently even proud of this stupidity and brought it back later on as I have elaborated on earlier already. So, overall, here we have another gay-themed movie that completely relies on the idea of a gay relationship in the film and sadly this alone is enough already for many to appreciate a movie like this, even if the writing is incredibly poor. Do not fall for this shallow approach. Absolutely disgusting that even some awards bodies appreciated the outcome. It does not deserve any honors. I normally like Danish (short) films. They are frequently good, especially those form the crime genre, but this one here went all kinds of wrong. Massive thumbs-down from me. Definitely watch something else instead.