The Inheritance – Complicated Family Relationships

In the movie The Inheritance, we see the interaction and complications between the family and the family business. The movie displays how the unhealthy family business destroy and tear down family relationships. When the movie starts, the father of the family and head of the family business commits suicide. This works as a red alert that just keeps growing stronger throughout the movie and development of the plot. In my opinion, the mother of the family is the one creating the tensions and separations between the family members. She controls the family and the family business with an iron hand. She manipulates and enforces fear into her son Christoffer, who against his inner will, takes over after his father’s death even though that position would have been better fitted for his brother in-law who has worked for the company for the past fifteen years. Throughout the movie, we see the gradual shift in behavior of Christoffer, and how his relationship to his wife weakens for every month he works in the family business. Even his relationship to his sister is tested. The family could have greatly benefited from open and sincere communication, and implementing more transparency regarding decision-making since numerous times important decisions are made behind the backs of the family members. If the family would have been able to clearly communicate, and the mother would have set her private agenda aside to instead concentrate in what would have been in the best interest of the family, the family members would not have suffered so from the family business.