Happy, Happy ("Sykt lykkelig")

Cecil says: I should have learnt my lesson by now: don't be fooled by the one-liners on the film posters. "Hilarious", "joyful", "comic" this was not. And I ought to know also that a Nordic film with a title like "happy, happy" will be out to test our notions of what is happiness and is less likely to be a rolling-in-the-aisles experience than you might think.

Having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It was drama along the lines of that UK TV series from the 1990s "Cold Feet"; in fact, one of the lead actresses in this film (Maibritt Saerens, who plays Elisabeth) bore an uncanny resemblance to Karen from Cold Feet (Hermione Norris), both in looks and temperament.

And there was one scene, which might have been hilarious, had it not been a rather tame reminder of the nude vicar chase in Room with a View...

No, this is all about two couples living in snow-covered Norway in the middle of nowhere. One couple comprises the nervous, child-like Kaja and her taciturn, hunter-type husband Eirik. The other couple are the newly-arrived urbanites: Elisabeth is a lawyer, sophisticated and out-of-place in this rural outback away from culture and conversation; her husband Sigve a smiling mean-well man who prefers to sing or go for a run than join the neighbour on a hunting trip.

Of course things never turn out quite how you expect, on film or in real life in many cases, and this plot has lots of twists and turns as the four learn about each other and themselves over a period that cannot last more than a few weeks (though time is not that important here).

There's also the sub-plot of their two sons: the urbanite couple with an adopted black kid "from Africa", and the local couple with the very blond, very fair Theodor. Except Theodor is not very fair and plays out his own frustrations in a disturbing slave-master roleplay game with poor old Noa, which carries on intermittently throughout the film.

And then there's the four singers, who begin and end the whole film, and throw in a few excellent numbers in between scenes. They are kind of somewhere between the Blues Brothers and Four Puffs and a Piano, and I'm not really sure what role they are playing, except possibly as some Brechtian commentator on how things develop in the storyline. It's great music, though, and they're fine singers, so I'll be watching out for them - their names appeared in the credits, but I can't find them now when I search online, so if anybody reading this can tell me who they are, please help...

And finally, I saw this one alone in DC (Bea and I still apart for one week more). I checked the UK release date and of course, there is none. It opened in Norway a year ago, and played in France, but no, the Brits aren't interested it seems. Well, I think they're wrong and would like to see it on release when I'm back.

So, not hilarious, not even a comedy, but I'll give it ***.5 out of 5