A somewhat gentle man

Cecil says: This is basically a Norwegian version of Kaurismaki. The same bleak humour; the same pace; the same insights into the hum-drum and the mundane.

Ulrik is just leaving prison in the opening scene after a 12-year stretch for shooting a man. It's a nice opener, with the prison guard urging him never to look back but just look forward. And the first thing he does when he's walked 10 metres out of the prison: he looks back, of course.

His old gang mates have kept an eye on his family while he's been inside and they are on hand to find him accommodation and a job. It's barely better than his prison cell though, deep down in the bowels of his gang leader's sister's house.

He's urged by the gang to take revenge on the guy who shopped him to the police. And this is the plot: how does he adapt back into 'normal' life; will he carry out the revenge; will his family have him back; what does he want from his life?

If you thought of Norway as being all fjords and northern lights and wealth based on oil and gas, think again. This is the downside of Norway: the apartment blocks built in the 50s; the dead cafes; the daily grind Norway which probably exists but you won't usually see as a tourist.

It's actually a heart-warming film if you look closely enough. Though you need time to get under Ulrik's skin and be in his space.

The sex scenes are extraordinary. There are quite a few of them, but there's little love or affection: note the hearty pat on the back by one of his lovers after they finish.

And if you're squeamish, turn away when he deals with the violent husband of one of the characters.

I never quite get Kaurismaki films but I somehow enjoy them. Maybe Hans Peter Molland is a little bit more accessible, but I'm still not sure I got half of it; a Norwegian audience would probably have been rolling in the aisles half the time.

***

Bea says:
A darkly comic film, which I enjoyed. The taciturn Ulrik is well played, and the story (described by Cecil above) accessible. Although I did wonder half way through - why are so many films made about criminals and lives of crime? Surely it's not that common? Or do I risk sounding like Silje, Ulrik's daughter-in-law, who wants her baby to only be around "normal" people, who work in nurseries with plants, not in the underbelly of crime.

Like Cecil, what I appreciated most about this film is its portrayal of very ordinary Norwegian life, with everyone looking a bit rough, and many scenes in and out of the 1950s apartment blocks I know so well from my own experiences in continental Europe.

I wasn't particularly caught up in the will-he won't-he go straight aspect of the story, as usual for me I was more interested in the relationships between all the characters; in some ways I think there were better stories in here that weren't told - a tender love affair that could grow between Ulrik and Karen-Margarite, Strictly Ballroom-style perhaps, the ugly duckling becoming a swan etc.

But it was entertaining and a diversion, and I chuckled a lot - what more can you ask of a Friday night trip to the flicks?
**1/2