Polaarpoiss

The Polar Boy is an exceptionally good movie – it has captivating and original story-line, depth and dark humor, real, intense human emotions and passion. In a sense it is a boy-meets-a-girl story with a refreshing twist – the girl is very much out of the ordinary, as she's been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder.

However, this is definitely not a depressing movie, on the contrary, it is vibrant, sexy and quite fast-paced, yet very "real" and truly heartfelt. It tells a story of what it's like to be different – free-spirited, emotionally unconstrained and sensitive in today's rational and restrained society that measures people by their ability to blend in and act "normal". Everyone who does not fit in is considered a threat and oftentimes locked up in some mental institution, out of sight, so that the masses could continue living their carefully planned out, prudent lives, always playing it safe and always afraid of what others might think if they show their true emotions and let it all out for even just once in their lives. Yet those rare and exceptional individuals, like the girl in this movie, who dare to be themselves and act spontaneously, are a true inspiration to others. Having fallen in love with this crazy, sexy and sensitive girl, the boy in this movie starts to take risks that he would never have dared to take before, leading to some complicated situations, but at the same time making him realize the true insanity of this overly rational and sane society most of us in the Western world live in.

If you have ever felt the same way - that it is sometimes so hard to just blend in and follow the rules, and instead you would wish to live your life to the fullest, enjoying every moment and feeling alive - then you will no doubt enjoy this movie and relate to the main characters as much as I did.

The other reviewers have written about the film's merits. There was however one aspect of the movie that was so poorly realised that I found it very difficult to sit through the film. Sound design is incredibly important in film-making and often undervalued. However, in 'The Polar Boy', it seems that the sound team are shouting at you to pay attention to their work. The volume of white noise, traffic and bird sounds are ramped up so high that they overwhelm most scenes. All I could notice was how loud all the background noise was and it took me right out of the movie. This may have been a decision on the part of the director and post production team to give the film a documentary style feel but it has unfortunately ruined the movie.

In real life the human ear filters out white noise. Maybe the film makers thought the over amplified background noise would give the film a heightened sense of reality, maybe it was meant to create unease in the audience. However, what it achieves is to make the audience very aware they are watching a film rather than engaging in it.