Is the farcical tone intentional?
I have a difficult time reconciling the farcical tone of the film and the seriousness of the crime (child molestation). Christian gives so little outward indication of his thought process that the audience can only take him as a comically neurotic cypher rather than empathizing with his anguish. Likewise, the neurotic behaviors of Helene (e.g., in the taxi, finding the note) and Michael (e.g., the shoes scene) are overblown to the extend that the characters are almost caricatures. Classism (the brothers taking sexual advantage of the maids) and racism (Else "misremembering" Gbatokai as "Gonzales") are lightly mocked at best and sometimes even played for laughs (Michaels telling Gbatokai no trumpet player is needed). For that matter, why demean Christian's old flame by show her horniness, or make the grandfather a fool who would think nothing of embarassing his 60 year old son in a formal occassion? And seriously, hiding the guests' car keys to make them stay?
Sorry, for me, the film is just set in the wrong tone (for the subject matter).
I must confess that in general, I find farce either too cultural specific or too shallow. Perhaps making fun of the uppercrust appeals to most Danes but I don't think it would resonnate with people from societies where class plays a lesser role (e.g., American).