Hawaii, Oslo

I have seen this film at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival and truly enjoyed it. "Hawaii, Oslo" is one of the best if not THE best film I have seen for many years. I was really moved by the honest and human story and emotions in the film. Also, the acting is superb and the story clever. I highly recommend this film. Also I spoke to Stig Henrik Hoff, what a nice guy and great actor. THANKS!!! "Hawaii, Oslo" is one of those films you need to see again and again and you will pick up more details every time you see the film. Just about everything about the film is harmonic, the acting, the story, the music, the pictures. I think what makes this film so special is the fact that there are only main characters in this film and they seem to identify 100% with their roles. Great acting by the two boys, too - they are brilliant, too!

This was one of the films that most people kept telling me to go and watch. I just saw it and I really must admit that i don't quite understand what all the hype is about. Reading some of the reviews of it in Misc. Norwegian newspaper one could easily be lead to believe that this was one of the best Norwegian films of all time.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't that good either. Sure, most of the actors did a good job and in the Norwegian film industry the script was original even though it's been done before in other countries. I feel that the pace was to slow which lead your mind to focus on other things than what was happening on screen. The soundtrack could need some improving too.

Overall I would say its a 5 on the 1 to 10 scale, OK, but not groundbreaking or the film of the century as some people have stated that it is.

Hawaii,Oslo - Norwegian The best movie I have seen this year so far. This one was a very special , a very unique ethereal experience. I can feel my head cool and relaxed due to the blood flowing inside I guess. The movie was at the same intriguing , spiritual , hopeful , emotional.The script has as much content to extract five six movies out and I am surprised I don't see many awards linked to this movie on the DVD cover. It is about people placed in very very delicate situations and then things turning over magically. There is a father whose new-born son would die in a few hours as he is incapable of sustaining without the umbilical chord.The solution is to create an umbilical chord and fix back and the doctors have written off as impossible. The father does not give up and holds the straw of a private clinic operation at the huge cost of 900,000 Kronas that he cannot manage and he sells off everything and is about to attempt a bank robbery when another character in the movie robs the bank just before.The most joyous moment for me was when he sits dejected and one of the robber brothers, who runs away from the robbery .... edited to not reveal one of the many suspenses that the movie offers There is Leon who runs whenever he is not sure what to do next. The first scene of the movie is a dream that Jiddar(Leon's friend) sees and whatever he sees tends to be true. So he gets worried and tries to prevent the mishaps. The story goes through various situations where incident after incident, things turn positive and starts to move more and more away from the dream until the end when the first scene is repeated as it is. The movie is brilliantly engineered and has a lot of beauty to it. Lot of troubled lives trapped in cities. I would think that lot of the trouble would go off if people live together. A lady takes pills to suicide and is saved by a note message that one of her sons who has not seen each her in eleven years sends through a paper-girl. There is the plot of the robber brother who is given parole to meet Leon on his birthday.I started off by seeing this as a sweet gesture where as quickly a deep plan unfolds. The movie is rich. In story , in emotion , in acting , in direction - perfect control and an awesome awesome ride.

I recently saw this film at a screening by the Desert Film Society in Palm Springs. I had wanted to see this at the 2005 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it had it's international debut outside of Norway but screenings were sold out so I was eager to see this as it had good reviews by those I know who saw it. Eric Poppe makes his directorial debut in this film. He had been a cameraman so experience in filming a movie was there but how was he going to direct this story and it's actors? Well this film had a wonderful cast of actors who although they may have not been individually great actors, collectively as an ensemble cast they played their parts with an authenticity that left the viewer as seeing these as real people not just screen characters. I like characters in a film and this has plenty. The implausibility of these stories weaving together is quickly forgotten and in place of the implausible is a wonderful story that you want to climb aboard and ride to it's conclusion. Poppe uses hand held cameras through this film's shooting so effectively that you forget that this is not a huge budget film with track and crane shots but a simple presentation that when effectively done presents the film in a straightforward manor that can be just as effective. No dependency on jerky movements and fast and stylistic camera movement but instead on honest presentation transcribed to film. The sound in this film is outstanding as well. Many films demand great acting performances to carry an other wise weak script. This film had good acting performances delivered from a balanced script. This is a psychological drama and a very good film and I would rate it a 8.0 of a possible 10 and highly recommend it.

This movie got rave reviews in the Norwegian press, and has also been a huge success with the audience. Initially I thought it was sympathetic, albeit very slow - with good actors and some really nice cinematography - but what was it really all about? The script clearly not very original, a cheapo take on the brilliant Altman epos "Short Cuts". OK - the director is in every right to be inspired by great art. But then I started to notice how much was pick pocketed, from the title (Paris, Texas - hello??)- the running character; and the need for a LOT of cash (Run Lola, run)- the angelic characters (Der Himmel über Berlin) - hmmm... the list just goes on and on. Zero originality here,the borderline between_inspiration_and_simple theft is stepped across too many times. On top of this, the director stresses emotions in a not very subtle fashion. I am tempted to call this genre " feelie ", as opposed to the "feel good"-genre so popular these days. Its not feel good, but darn close. The ending of this movie is almost unbelievably sentimental. No wonder people leave the theatre weeping, but this is a response heavily stressed by and wished for of the direction, something I find deeply disturbing - almost unethical!

This movie just serves to justify my life-long suspicion towards the Norwegian film industry and so-called critics alike.