The synopsis of ‘It’s All About Love’ reads very much like that of any other science fiction film. In the year 2021 the world is on the brink of meltdown; all over the planet people are dropping down dead in the street due to an unspecified heart complaint, in Uganda civilians are rising from the ground and flying, and in New York it’s snowing in July. Against this backdrop of cosmic disturbance a young couple are meeting to sign their divorce papers. John (Joaquin Phoenix) a literature professor in Poland and Elena (Clare Danes) a world famous ice skater now based in New York, have let distance and circumstance tear them apart. What is meant to be a two hour stopover to sign some papers turns into a week of intrigue and peril as John realises there are sinister forces at work in Elena’s life and in trying to save her simultaneously realises that regardless of distance and circumstance, it’s all about love.

Frustrating too is the other major plot strand. The ‘thriller’ element to the film relies on you accepting that being an ice skater in the ‘not too distant future’ is very much like being Madonna and that an entire company (or ‘family’) would be dependant on such a super star. So if such a commodity wanted to retire attempts to dissuade or replace them would be suitably dastardly and drastic. Without totally giving the game away these attempts have a sci-fi flavour too which, on occasion, can be genuinely spooky. The difficultly isn’t suspending your disbelief, it’s understanding what’s going on as Elena’s plight is never really fully explained logically and symbolically is harder to fathom than lack of love weakening one’s heart. Just what is Vinterberg trying to say? Should we merely put it down to an excuse to use some striking visual effects and as a catalyst for some Hitchcockian flights across an Art Deco New York?

Those of you familiar with Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier’s Dogme Manifesto will be thinking that all this spectacle couldn’t be further from the rules of filmmaking the pair laid down in 1995. In fact ‘It’s All About Love’ is so far from those rigid constraints that Co-writer Mogens Rukov calls the film ‘Anti-Dogme’; sets, studios, no hand held cameras, Phoenix claimed he spent more time in front of a green screen for this film than he did making ‘Gladiator’.

In this dreamlike state of filmmaking performances are harder to judge. Phoenix is unshakably brilliant and carries off his Polish accent with aplomb. John is very much the staple of Phoenix’s back catalogue a restrained, brooding and highly attractive man – perhaps this is just what Phoenix brings with him to a part. Having a little more trouble with her accent is Clare Danes, accents aside the part of Elena gives Danes far more opportunity to stretch her range and the multifaceted performance she delivers has a good deal more personality than purely a damsel in distress. Even when portraying the most featured, subdued version of Elena you can’t help but feel Danes’ slight woodenness is a deliberate tribute to Tippi Hedren in her roles as Hitch’s ice cold blonde.