When Love Turns Lethal: How Loving Adults Played With Trust, Desire, and Deception
When Loving Adults debuted on Netflix in 2022, it didn’t just become another Nordic thriller on the service. It sparked an intrigue built around the themes of infidelity, obsession, and psychological manipulation. The trailer alone sent social media into a frenzy. It is a film about a seemingly perfect Danish marriage, a husband embroiled in an extramarital affair, and a wife who may—or may not—be a murderer. With this premise, one could expect a cinematic experience in the style of Gone Girl, polished and sleek. What Loving Adults offered was something more uncomplicated, more Scandinavian in its chill: a narrative less about the crime and more about the insidious, destructive emotions underpinning the drama.
The Calm Before the Storm: Pre-Release Hype and Expectation
Prior to its premiere, Loving Adults was advertised as Netflix’s first original film from Denmark, a landmark development in the context of Nordic cinema and as part of Netflix’s global integrated offerings. Those who appreciated Netflix’s slow European thrillers, The Chestnut Man and The Killing, were eager to see how this film would intertwine the psychological realism of Scandinavian cinema with raw, violent crime.
The buzz was also driven by the cast, notably Dar Salim, who due to powerful roles in Borgen and Warrior is considered a star in Denmark, and Sonja Richter, who is known around the world for her memorable performance in Susanne Bier’s Open Hearts. Both actors were seasoned professionals and did not chase headlines, which provided a different, and for many, unexpected seriousness to Loving Adults, which is a stark contrast to the light streaming thrillers most viewers are accustomed to.
Most of the Danish dramas created by Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg, the director, have a lighter tone and so the shift to psychological suspense garnered much interest, and concern, about her ability to balance the emotional authenticity of the characters and the stifling tension of the plot.
As was to be expected, upon its release, Loving Adults rapidly climbed to the top of the most streamed offerings on Netflix in a number of countries, including India, which has a long-standing interest in stories that weave together substantially different moralities and love that is not usually celebrated in the mainstream.
A Marriage Made of Secrets
The tale opens with what appears to be a picture-perfect domestic life. Christian (Dar Salim) is a thriving business owner and is married to Leonora (Sonja Richter), a devoted wife who set aside her own career to raise their son. They have a lovely house, and a stable life. That is, until Leonora finds out about Christian’s affair with a younger woman, Xenia (Sus Wilkins).
Next, the film explores the concept of “love as safety.” The couple’s shared history becomes a weapon. Leonora, outwardly calm, begins to suggest she knows more than she ought to. While violence quickly becomes his last resort, it is Christian’s desperate, guilt-ridden, and fear-driven attempt to address the situation that is most likely to close off any potential for resolution.
What is most remarkable about this film is the absence of a clear villain. Everybody is flawed, and ultimately, so is everyone. Leonora’s pain is raw and, having resulted from years of sacrifice, it is also cold and calculated. Christian’s guilt is, after all, human; he is, after all, a mere man, neither a monster nor a villain, attempting to escape a weakness that, he realizes, is his own.
The absence of shocking twists is replaced by an economy of tension that is so richly layered it feels surreal. It is present in the stillness of the suburban environment, long silences, and glances laden with history. Emotion, as the greater humane element of communication, takes the place of dialogue in the storytelling, lending Loving Adults a bizarre and disturbing beauty.
The Personal Quality of Betrayal
What most sets Loving Adults apart from American thrillers is the intimate and personal portrayal of the story. Rather than pursuing police investigations or courtroom dramas, the film examines the very essence of betrayal and its profound effects on the self, trust, and identity.
Leonora is not simply angry because she was cheated on; she is furious because she sacrificed her dreams for this man. When she finally strikes back, it is not simply revenge; it is an act of reclaiming control over a life that has been quietly taken from her. Sonja Richter plays this slow burn masterfully. Her lined, intelligent, and exhausted face tells a story of each and every compromise women make in the name of love.
Christian, played by Dar Salim, on the other hand, is stuck between the feelings of guilt and denial. He is not an obvious villain; he sincerely thinks that he can “fix it” without any consequences. Salim, who has always chosen morally complex roles, brings a restrained depth to the character. His own life journey from being an Iraqi refugee to being one of Denmark’s top actors is very similar to Christian’s but in opposite moral ways; he was able to find success, something that Christian strives for, but through morally wrong parameters.
Xenia, played by Sus Wilkins, is the emotional wildcard of the film. Unlike the “homewrecker” stereotype, she is a woman who truly believes she has found love, she only has to realize that she is just a pawn in someone else’s story.
Together, the three form a tragic triangle of deception where every participant loses something; innocence, safety, or sanity.
Cinematic Coldness: The Beauty in the Bleak
With regard to visual composition, Loving Adults resembles glass and steel construction. The cinematography captures Denmark’s minimalist beauty, with wide shots featuring modern houses, gray skies, and empty roads, creating the illusion that even a whisper could be head.
Barbara Topsøe-Rothenborg’s direction favors restraint over chaos. She doesn’t rely on loud musical cues or rapid cuts to induce suspense; instead, the stillness of a scene provides a suffocating sensation that tension is building. One of the most unsettling scenes in the film is not violent. It is when Leonora watches Christian from across the room without any expression.
Pacing is a more divisive issue. Some admire the purposeful slowness, associating it with the emotional realism of Nordic noir. Audiences with a more mainstream perspective, especially those anticipating a thrill ride in the style of Gone Girl, found the film too subdued. It is this lack of sensationalized attention to the pain that makes Loving Adults a memorable feature.
The mask in cinematography is but a form of expression. When the film came out, both Sonja Richter and Dar Salim were at interesting points in their careers. Loving Adults marked Richter’s return to international film, a sphere from which she had been away for some time. Critics commended her for embodying the character’s emotional duality, a woman both victim and villain; a performamce that truly illustrates the ache for her.
In contrast, Dar Salim was experiencing an increase in visibility. He had played different variations of soldiers, different politicians, and conflicted men. With Loving Adults, he had the opportunity to portray different aspects of vulnerability. The connection between Salim and Richter was palpable; it was raw and achingly real rather than glamorous.
Emerging actress and trained dancer, Sus Wilkins, received positive attention for playing Xenia. In numerous interviews, she emphasized her desire for Xenia to humanize being “the other woman” and to depict emotional detachment rather than vilifying her character.
What the Cameras Didn’t Show
Loving Adults was not without its own tensions. The film’s intimate scenes were choreographed and crafted with unusual care, not just to maintain realism, but to ensure the actors were emotionally safe. Sonja Richter later recounted how emotionally challenging certain scenes were, particularly those depicting manipulation in a marriage.
In a surprising move, director Topsøe-Rothenborg required all major confrontations to be staged in a theatrical manner, allowing actors to find “truth in timing” for each confrontation. This unconventional choice for a psychological thriller enhanced the film’s tightly controlled sense of intensity.Initially, there were concerns in Denmark regarding the movie’s sexualized and scandalous marketing, particularly since the narrative was much more psychological in nature. According to some critics, Netflix had marketed the movie as a “guilty pleasure” when in reality, it was a character study.
The most interesting piece of the film was the Anna Ekberg novel that it was inspired by. Anna Ekberg is in fact a pseudonym of two male Danish writers. They co-write with a focus on female psychology and the reaction to that was largely to do with female anger and repression. In this case, the discussion was largely about how Richter was able to perform that emotion unapologetically.
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