I noticed many different things while watching this film:
One thing included how there was clearly a lack of succession planning. During one point at which the father was still alive, the family should have discussed clearly what would have happened if ever the father had died. Since the family did not do this, there was chaos that resulted and no one knew their clear role. Ultimately, Anneliese took control of the decision making and identified who would do what. However, although the mother’s role was helpful in some ways it was also stressful in different ways because she pressured Christopher to leave his lifestyle and make a 180 degree turn in his life. If there was a clear succession plan, then there would be no arguments regarding Christopher and his brother-in-law, as one example.
Another thing i realized was how women/daughter roles played an affect in the movie. The mother had a very strong role in the movie and was a very influential character. However in comparison, the daughter was no respected as much as Christopher and the family only listen to her flees to rehire her husband after a very long time of hostile attitudes between the daughter and the family. Also, Maria did not have much of an influential role either because ultimately Christopher had chosen the family business over his wife’s own desires. Likewise, by watching this movie we see the many dynamics that are present in a family business.
It is interesting that you made that observation because I thought there was a succession plan and just that the mother utterly refused to follow it. Ulrik states how for the past few years he and Aksel were working on the new business plan for the company that mapped out how the company would continue to grow. His furry about not being chosen to be the next director also led me to believe that there was a plan in place that was ignored. The mother’s actions at the funeral parlor seemed to foreshadow how she would undermine all that Ulrik has done for the company over the years for the fact that she wanted her son to be in the business. At that time she states that it was Chistoffer’s choice to leave the business and how he should tell the employees about his father’s death, even though he isn’t even the one who called for the meeting.