Berlin Review: Lone Scherfig’s ‘The Shift’
deadline.comSince her Sundance hit An Education in 2009, Denmark’s Lone Scherfig has become something of an honorary Brit, specializing in prestige adaptations of best-selling English novels (or, in the case of 2014’s The Riot Club, critically acclaimed stage plays).
Surprisingly, none of these ever quite tipped in the way An Education did, and after a mixed reaction to One Day (2011), which mostly rounded on Anne Hathaway’s Yorkshire accent rather than her performance, Scherfig’s first real attempt to tap into the American market — 2019’s The Kindness Of Strangers — was an uncharacteristic misfire and pretty much vanished into the ether after opening the Berlinale that year.It would be tempting, then, to see The Shift, Scherfig’s debut as a series showrunner, as a palate cleanser.
True, the series, which is screening in the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Series strand, is closer to her 2000 breakout ensemble comedy-drama Italian For Beginners, which catapulted her onto the festival circuit after premiering at the Berlinale, but then Scherfig has often returned to work in her native country, as evidenced by the deeply Danish oddity Just Like Home (2007).
It seems more likely that, as with many of her peers, Scherfig is drawn to the possibilities of the longform series, and it is clear from The Shift‘s first two episodes that the aim is for something looser and more emotional than we might associate with the format.
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