101 Réikiavik

At first I thought this would be yet another melancholic Scandinavian psycho-drama involving a boy and his coming out lesbian mum. The plot is indeed somewhat along these lines, but there's nothing melancholic let alone Scandinavian about this funny funny movie.

However this is not exactly a comedy either although it turns out to be comical enough. Rather it's a slice of life seen through the glasses of an almost 30 years old drone, brilliantly played by Hilmir Snaer Gudnason, living off benefits and his far too indulgent mother.

Hlynur the anti-hero sleeps til noon, loafs around at home all day and drinks all night. Although he manages to sleep with members of the opposite sex, he can't bear to wake up to them. In other words he's a modern Peter Pan refusing to grow up -- if you can imagine Peter Pan as an apathetic chain-smoking sloth in a parka. And he seems fairly content with his simple non-life until Victoria Abril waltzes in .

The scene where Hlynur's mum confesses her new found sexual direction is nothing short of wonderful. It has an unerring ring of truth to it: a family drama played out over a quiet cuppa in the kitchen and it manages to be moving and hilarious at the same time. In that very scene Gudnason also shows off his exquisite acting skills: with great restraint and uttering PC platitudes he betrays the emotional battle raging within. Pathetic yet sympathetic.

Hlynur is played with just the right blend of indifference, impotence (although not sexual) and self-pity needed for the part and, though fairly unsympathetic to begin with, he grows on you as he reveals himself as a lost little boy. That much of his depressive nerd personality is more or less kept throughout the whole process is yet another proof of the quality of the acting and writing in 101 Reykjavik.

All the main actors central to the plot give stellar performances and many of the marginals too. The music is interesting, scored by our very own Damon Albarn (of Blur) and Einar the Sugarcube (Bjork's Svengali). I especially liked the ambient-reggae version of the old Kinks standard Lola.

Some of the dialogue is in Icelandic which is fine as long as it is subtitled. Much of it is however in English delivered in a bizarre -- but fortunately intelligible -- cocktail of Icelandic and Spanish accents.

There are few drawbacks to this flick, the main one being the obligatory landscape scene of some glacier or lava... I forget. But that's like criticizing a three star restaurant for a spelling error in the menu. -- The superb Reykjavik nightlife scenes are however not to be missed and could well serve as advertisements for Icelandair.

One nice oddity is the nowadays little used narrator voice-over. Well, actually Hlynur serves more as a commentator to the respective fixes he finds himself in, deadpan, mordant and hilarious, but rarely explaining much which the viewer hasn't already divined far better than Hlynur himself ever will. I suspect that these comments are original quotes from the novel on which the film is based.

Played out with extremely dry, self-depreciating, almost Jewish humor, the movie draws to an end as a fairly touching story of familial love disguised as an adult coming-of-age movie, wrapped inside a black comedy. And as often enough happens in real life this Gordian knot of personal problems more or less unravels itself. In a movie however such a solution may seem cheap, but this one gets away with it as the characters just carry on with their lives after redefining the nuclear family.

This is the directing debut by actor/director Baltasar Kormakur, who also wrote the script. Actors do often not make the best directors, but Kormakur proves to be an exception to that rule. The characters are well developed as one could expect, but they are not allowed to get in the way of the storytelling, which relies more on visual details and physical acting than endless dialogue and over-dramatization. This is doubly impressing considering the literary origin of the movie.

And maybe this is a clue to why this film works so well: it is uniquely Icelandic (or should I say Mid-Atlantic), drawing on European and American filmmaking traditions, thus enjoying the best of both worlds: old and new. I know it will work in Britain and Europe and the Americans seem to like it as well judging by the rave review 101 Reykjavik got in Variety and the success at the influential Toronto film festival.

I have been living in Iceland for a year and a half and got a picture of the country, its people and its capital, Reykjavík (I actually even lived in the 101 postal code in Reykjavík). This movie is really highlighting a type of persons that I have met quite often in Iceland. I think it is a clear and accurate picture of an important part of the young population. The main actor, Hilmir Snær Guðnason (Hlynur), is really expressing this disillusion that you can feel while enjoying Reykjavík's night life. If you want to go to this marvelous country or if you just interested how one can survived after a few months winter night, this is the movie to go watching. But do not worry, there is more than that in Iceland.

Others have rehearsed the plot so here are some general comments.

The best thing about this film is Victoria Abril who is not so much a woman as a force of nature. I must admit I've not seen any of her work with Almodovar, but I was surprised to learn from the DVD filmography that she's been working in European cinema since as long ago as Richard Lester's 1976 "Robin and Marian". She was 40 when this film was made, so hardly a 'toygirl' for the fiftyish mother (although quite a catch, it must be said).

I guess Lola was changed from an Icelandic character to Spanish to draw in the European art-house audience but it's still a decision which works well as she personifies an outside force which arrives and turns Hlynar's world upside down.

The film feels very much like the novel adaptation it is - quite a lot of voice-over and exposition - but there are a number of deadpan cinematic jokes of the Kaurismaki variety, combined with sexual outrageousness in the Almodovar vein. Some of the humour only becomes apparent on repeated viewings; in all the fusion of styles works surprisingly well.

Overall, this probably won't change your life but it's a lot of fun.

This is one of the funniest movies I watched recently. A 30 years old guy, still living with his mother, refusing to get a job and quite retarded in regard to any relation with the opposite sex, runs into one crazy situation after the other, and his complete disability to handle them simply makes you scream out laughing. Yet, the humour in the movie is not of the dumb slapstick or nonsense kind, but, with some exceptions, actually quite intelligent, as social issues like sexual orientation, identity and general problems of way of living are dealt with. The spanish girl, as an intruder in the rather decadent and boring scenario of small Reykjavik, raises questions and perturbs the world of the small family perfectly by first seducing the son and then the mother, though unwillingly. Great acting. If this movie had a broader audience, it could really have become a big hit; now it encants only a limited number of spectators with its (very un-nordic) warm, easy and comfortable atmosphere and leaves you very satisfied. Big recommendation!

There are no new horizons in this film. Yes, there are quite a few perhaps talented young fellows who have a difficulty to adapt to mature life, to get a job, to get a stable relationship, financial independence. Haven't you known that already? But there is a novelty: a middle-aged mum comes out of the closet and declares her lesbian preference. Hang on, though: could you imagine a dad coming out of the closet? Probably yes, but then the emphasis of the film would have been very different. I mean, I'm somewhat suspicious about this lesbian line: isn't it just another sexy (literally and figuratively speaking), saucy attraction added to the film, for its own sake? Hardly anyone, presumably, would be curious to watch middle-aged or old men engaged in gay sex. Not so with women. Likewise, I've never been to Reykjavik, but I'm stunned to discover the apparently large number of lesbian or bi-sexual girls in its pubs. The asymmetry with homosexual men is obvious. So I have my doubts about this film's realism, or more exactly, its cynical exploitation of basic instincts. The film pretends to be a comedy. But it fails. As far as I'm concerned, there's just one genuinely funny moment---the scene with the parking inspector. All the rest are only *supposed* to be funny. A positive moment, however, is that they are not tasteless still. If it's a failed comedy, does it deliver a message? Hardly. Except possibly one: Hlynur eventually finds the job. That could be a serious message, if Hlynur were described as a rebel at the beginning. Which he isn't. Hence the film doesn't aspire to be anything but a comedy, and in that department it fails, I believe.

Now, you might think that such a mediocre film should have poor acting. You are wrong! Oddly enough, the acting is of very good quality. Guonason is perfect, entirely natural, and other leading actors are quite decent. I'm no great fan of Victoria Abril, but she does a good job too. To sum up: watch this film after a busy day and go to bed. Rating: 6.5.