If for some reason you have not been watching “Oprah” recently, you have been missing out on Dr. Phil’s Get Real Challenge.

For those not acquainted with Dr. Phil, he is a giant, humorless brick of a man who, one imagines, possesses some sort of credentials in psychology. If you find yourself in close proximity to Dr. Phil, expect two things to happen with absolute certainty:

1. He will touch you platonically.

2. You will cry.

In his Get Real Challenge, 42 people with serious life problems get together in isolation from the rest of the world and, with the help of Dr. Phil and each other, attempt to make a serious positive change in their lives by confronting and exorcising the demons of their pasts.

Given the popularity of Dr. Phil’s undertaking, I would suggest that Thomas Vinterburg, director of the 1998 Dutch film “The Celebration,” drop his movie’s rather dull title and instead call it something like “Dr. Vinterburg’s Get Real Challenge.”

It would be an appropriate renaming in many ways. The family in “The Celebration,” like Dr. Phil’s group, is deeply emotionally troubled, set off from the rest of the world, and forced, by intimate and dramatic personal confrontation, to try to get real.

Events in the movie center around the 60th birthday festivities of a wealthy Dutch patriarch named Helge. In fits and starts, the movie introduces us to his highly dysfunctional family, none of whose members seem to be particularly thrilled about the big get-together.

Christian is the stolid and responsible prodigal son who takes the occasion of his homecoming to, among other things, resume a longstanding relationship with one of the maids. His younger brother, Michael, the only married sibling, is unstable, abusive, dumb, and, as it happens, also has a thing going with a maid.

Michael’s personality is apparent from the moment we see him drive up to his father’s estate. A couple miles from the house he sees Christian walking along the road and promptly proceeds to kick his wife and kids out of the car to give his brother a ride in comfort.

Sister Helene has a bit more subtle personality, seeming at times stable and sensible, and at other times to be held together by little more than nicotine and alcohol.

We also learn early on of a fourth sibling, Christian’s twin sister Linda, who has recently committed suicide.

But despite the suicide in the background and the near palpable tension between the family members, we are still not prepared for the bombshell Christian drops on the gathered celebrants when he rises to toast his father.

It is an astounding scene. A lot of movies put characters in bizarre and uncomfortable situations, but almost none do as good a job of conveying the squirmy incredulity of such a plight to the audience as “The Celebration.”

Perhaps part of the reason that Vinterburg is able to draw his audience in so intimately is that he has taken a get-real challenge of his own. “The Celebration” was filmed according to the dictates of a cinema philosophy named Dogma 95.

Like Dr. Phil’s challenge, which requires for its duration participants to swear off sexual relations, nix timepieces and to sit or stand at all times in an open bodily position, Dogma 95 stipulates very strict rules designed to cut through the garbage and get to the heart of the matter.

Its adherents must use only handheld cameras, shoot everything on-location, shun any post-production audio or visual tweaking, and make use exclusively of natural light.

Whether the effect of this reductionism is wholly successful is open to debate. Ironically, taking away so many standard stylistic elements calls immediate attention to the style itself, often undermining its intended transparency.

But the very fact that the style is engaging recommends it, and, appropriately, the director’s strained attempt to “get real” mirrors similar endeavors by his characters.

After Christian lays bare the family’s darkest secret, the house’s staff steals everyone’s house keys, preventing departure and forcing confrontation of the issue, regardless of how ugly and uncomfortable it is.

I would surmise that the staff watches the Dutch version of “Oprah,” as this strategy is Dr. Phil in a nutshell.

There are, however, two crucial differences between Helge’s confrontational birthday party and Dr. Phil’s Get Real Challenge.

The first difference is that while I found the complex and troubled encounters in “The Celebration” to resound as genuine, Dr. Phil’s interaction with people smacks of the sort of public manipulation used by self-help cult leaders, stage hypnotists and faith healers.

The second difference is that Dr. Phil seems to be hugely successful helping people effect positive change, while Helge’s clan ends up basically as miserable as it started.

I suppose there is probably some wisdom to be found about deeply troubled people in both the optimism of Dr. Phil’s pop psychology and Vinterburg’s darker realism.

But then, I’m no head shrinker; check out “The Celebration” and take the Get Real Challenge for yourself.

Luke Thompson is a senior in English from Fort Dodge.