Brúðguminn

I'm reviewing this now-old movie because it is currently on Hulu where it is described as an "uproarious comedy", and I want to save anyone coming here from Hulu to learn more about the film some pain. It is not a comedy, let alone an uproarious one. It does have some funny moments, notably the opening scene, but it is generally very much a dark, angst-filled drama. The setting is spectacular and some of the acting is very credible, so it is worth watching, but know what you're getting yourself into.

I don't get why anybody thinks this is a comedy. Comedies are funny. Is it different in Iceland? Well acted but unrelentingly depressing.

Unless there is a great answer... somewhere, there was no point to making this movie!

This Icelandic comedy takes part on an island outside the northwest coast. They have a church, a priest, German tourists, a grocery, a white trasher who wants to start a golf business and most of all...they've got this middle-aged philosophy teacher, who wants to start a new life with his mentally weak wife.

But he meets this young girl and the circus is on. Or the chaos. The first half of this film is full of flashbacks. The content is both very tragical and most comical, but in this case, they don't match.

A good try perhaps, but not enough of it to make this a good movie. And the flashback technique could have been used with some moderation.

Icelandic film that would appear to be your typical romantic comedy judging by the movie poster. There's a whole lot more happening than the goofy mess that can be found in the U.S. theaters almost every weekend. This is art house goodness in almost every sense. What a beautiful, unique location this takes place in: a small, car-less island just off the coast of Iceland. A man is about to marry a woman half his age and has flashbacks to his previous wife and what happened in that marriage in the year leading up to this wedding. There are so many emotions going through several of these characters. The story almost seamlessly flips back and forth between past and present. Blink and you might miss which time frame it's in. A pretty interesting story that so easily helps establish the fact that foreign (to me) cinema is often much better than typical American trash! (Oh, and there's a great joke included about big burger butt Americans! Haaa!!!)

7.1 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener