A twisted film noir with an unusual plot narrated by a dying man. What almost begins as Sandra Bullock romcom While You Were Sleeping, unravels into a warped, dark thriller.

Jonas (Anders W. Berthelsen) appears a content, suburban man with wife Mette (Charlotte Fich) and two children, until an unexpected accident changes everything stable and predictable in his life. He inadvertently causes Julia (Rebecka Hemse) to have a car crash that leaves her in a coma. Riddled with guilt, Jonas decides to visit Julia in the hospital. There he somehow adopts the false character of her traveller boyfriend Sebastian (Nikolaj Lie Kaas). But Sebastian is not the kind of man anyone would want to embody. He is a violent drug-barren who met Julia in Hanoi a few months before her car crash on her return to Copenhagen.

Over the period of pretending to be “her” Sebastian and countless visits to her hospital bed, Jonas finds that he is falling for Julia, who slowly reveals herself to be a free-spirited, adventurous young woman with bad taste in men. From the moment Julia wakes from her coma with little memory of the real Sebastian, Jonas manages to create an exotic and visionary back story of their so-called past together. Immediately on Julia’s waking, Jonas’ life with Mette is continually paralleled to the hospital encounters with Julia. Quite like Jonas’ mental state, the camera is indecisive, chopping and changing between Jonas’ two worlds. Possessed by the odd connection and story Julia and “Sebastian” have created together.

The narrative develops interestingly, becoming more engrossing and perverse as most noir classics do. Director and screenwriter Ole Bornedal toys with death and his obsession for morgues continues in yet another film. Jonas is crime scene photographer, highlighted by the extended scenes with flashes of dead bodies and gruelling murders. However, this link between Jonas’ impersonation of an alleged violent, dead man and his profession seem somewhat contrived and predictable. Nonetheless, the motif of death is echoed effectively from start to finish: flashbacks, blurred recollections and photo snap shots of gory memories. To add further dramatic impact, Bornedal kills off Frank (Dejan Cukic), Jonas’ cynical, sinister colleague and friend. Cukic’s participation is probably the most fascinating; Frank’s the catalyst at the turning point of each sequence. His forceful monologues continue throughout about death, violence and irreconcilable differences in love.

When Jonas eventually leaves Mette for Julia, flashes of Julia’s violent time in Hanoi with Sebastian are peppered throughout her on-screen appearances, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth. The viewer knows that Jonas and Sebastian paths will cross, their identities tangled and convoluted, and yes, it finally does happen. Despite the narrative becoming absurdly crafted, what happens after that moment on screen is revealing and confusing but in some way makes sense. It seems that Julia manages to kill the same man twice.

Despite the narrative being far-fetched and predictable at times, Just Another Love Story can be described as a gripping, unsettling film noir with forceful interrelationships between characters and themes. Overall it deserves a 7.5/10.