Mýrin

This is a well made, enjoyable crime thriller that manages to sustain tension and interest throughout its run time and marries this with some well handled comic moments. The main character, Erlunder, is a multi-layered and believable, ageing, seen-it-all-before cop, while the scenes involving discovery of dead bodies are skin-crawlingly well acted and nauseously realistic.

However, given the kind of budgets and talent available to producers of TV crime series these days, Jar City suffers from the fact that the plot really could form an episode of CSI:Rejkjavik or, dare I say it Taggart (a old British crime series). There are no huge surprises or twists in the tail - it is, essentially, a standard, old fashioned who/why dunnit.

However, what sets Jar City apart from CSI and its ilk is the cinematography. Obviously I've seen images of Iceland before - but I've never seen it captured in such a bleak, but beautiful fashion. Iceland itself is centrally important to the character of this film (and might even be said to be one of the characters) and its strangely picturesque scenery and, in some cases, downright weirdness, make Jar City worth watching just for this alone.

Inspector Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson) has to investigate a "messy and pointless" murder. A dirty old man has had his head bashed in in his flat. "Typical Icelandic", he thinks.

Iceland just touches the Arctic circle. It's a long way from anywhere else. It is grey and gritty, spectacular and melancholy, buffeted by blasts of wind, snow and steam. Against this background Erlendur doggedly untangles the connections and the crimes of the past, digging up corpses and secrets shameful or tragic. Landscape and society alike are revealed and commented on, drily and laconically.

Being based on a novel by Iceland's most successful crime writer, the characters are as well known to the home audience as Rebus, for instance, is in Britain, and carry enough of the baggage of real life to make them credible and sympathetic. There are visual themes of burials and exhumations, post-mortems, pathology labs and fast food, and a sound track of male voices shading into electronic moans and growls, which in turn dissolve into the wind. It's a very well-constructed package, which is thought provoking, gruesome, touching and funny, and it's certainly worth seeing.

I went to the premiere of Mýrin (Jar City) last night, the much awaited movie based on the novel by Arnaldur Indriðason. Having read the book, a lot of effort went into analyzing how it played out on the screen. And on that front, there are no complaints. I thought that the feeling of the novel shone throughout the film and the necessary plot changes were clever and executed perfectly.

A friend of mine who also went to the premiere, without first reading the novel, was also impressed and found it compelling and exciting.

The actors delivered their role nicely, especially Ingvar Örn Sigurðsson and the comedy relief Björn Hlynur Haraldsson. Gone is the annoying habit of acting as if you were on stage when on screen, that has troubled Icelandic filmmakers in the past.

The music is brilliant, both Mugison's theme music as well as the powerful opening and closing scenes with the Reykjavík Police Choir.

Having had high expectations for this film I'm very impressed. 9 out of 10. Keep up the good work, Baltasar Kormákur, there are many more novels by Arnaldur that would fit the silver screen.

Baltasar Kormákur was there to answer questions at the first screening of this excellent film at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007. He did a terrific job, both of directing the film and of untangling some of the details for us after the screening.

This was a film that we picked up at the last minute, to see on the first day of the festival. We went in with absolutely no expectations and were thrilled to find one of the best films of the festival laid out before us.

Everything about this film was outstanding: casting, sets and locations, acting, directing, and the subtitling was unobtrusive but effective. It has a wonderful black humour to it in spots, too. No wonder Iceland has chosen this film as its Oscar contender.

I know I'll see this film again! Not only that, but I've ordered all of the books in the series by Arnaldur Idridason that I could find in translation, because I found his story so compelling and want to read the further adventures of Detective Erlendur. I sincerely hope Kormákur directs more of them.

If you like your crime thrillers with imagination,good directing & superb acting, then 'Myrin' is for you. This Scandanavian cold case cop thriller concerns a police officer who is on a 30 year-old murder case involving the death of a 5 year old girl,while also trying to solve a more recent murder most foul. The officer is also trying to balance all of this while dealing with his own drug addicted daughter who is always trying to cage money off of her dad. Along the way, we are treated to some of Iceland's slimy criminal underworld (including those on the police force). I really admired the photography,which balances some rather bleak,wintry scenes,balanced with the rugged beauty of the Icelandic countryside (the use of muted colour really works for the tone of this rather bleak,pessimistic film). The film also makes good use of some black humour. As this film has no U.S. distribution,it will be a bit of a chore finding a cinema that screens quality films like this. No MPAA rating, but would most likely land an 'R', for every possible reason (raunchy language,violence,some of it pretty bloody & gory,and some very adult situations). Leave the small fry's home for this one (it would probably freak them out,anyway)