Junk Mail

This has got to be one of the most miserable films that I have ever had the fortune to see. Although miserable, there is an abundance of humour contained within. I watched the film a couple of years back after it had been standing on my shelf for a year or so before that, it had me depressed and laughing and then depressed again throughout its hour and a half running time.

Anyone who enjoys low budget, gritty realism type films should make the effort to see this. It's about an Oslo postman who is a little bit too nosey for his own good. His prying about other people lives leads him to trouble of the kind not generally associated with the postal service. I'm not going to tell you everything about the movie because, to be honest, there isn't much to tell. Just go and see it for yourself. In the UK it is available on Tartan Video under the heading 'Junkmail'. If you are lucky enough (and patient enough to watch a Norwegian language film) then you will have stumbled upon one of the greatest dark comedies you're ever likely to see. Norway's greatest gift to an audience which is becoming more and more receptive of non-English language film.

A twisty-turny narrative that ultimately leads nowhere, avoiding both exposition and explanation at the end of the day. Like a Nordic Coen Brothers film, this is more concerned with portraying quirky characters and odd scenarios, but despite some nifty camerawork, it is a rather ugly film, revelling in its depressingly squalid milieu without making any real point at the end of the day. The anti-hero remains a complete enigma throughout, but funnily enough, despite my reservations at the beginning, it was rather hard not to be won over at the end of the day. There were some marvellously taut action and suspense sequences, and some hilariously humourous scenes. Rather similar to most Scandinavian films I've seen actually. Dark grey and depressing, but blackly comic.

Junk Mail is a Norweigan movie, and it is as black a comedy as I've seen. But the makers of the movie have stumbled onto a comedic truth that never fails: take an aberrant character trait, and take it to the absolute limit. The lead character is a mailman of monstrously incompetent proportions, a creepy, irredemiably snoopy individual who can't even get mugged right; he would gladly have handed over his mailbag, but he couldn't get it off his shoulder. In the process of sneaking around a deaf girl's apartment whom he fancies, he saves her life after she tries to commit suicide. For this guy, this uncharacteristically unselfish act sets off a disastrous chain of events. This weird movie will NOT work for you if you don't think it's funny. And this movie will only be funny for you to the degree that you're cynical and capricious in your affections. People of good heart, stay away.

i'm glad there are a lot of other commentaries this frees me from telling too much about the story. it is about a postman who read the letters he's supposed to deliver and eventually even throws them away. suddenly he finds himself in the middle of a absurd and even a little dangerous story. but in my opinion just needs this story to talk about the relations between people. and what makes this movie so special is the fact that it actually not just shows pictures and sequences you've seen a hundred-times before.

it really has, i can't put it differently, respect for its personal.

this means that the persons keep their own personality for the whole absurd-tragic story of the movie.

JUNK MAIL (3+ outta 5 stars) Offbeat but sincere comedy-thriller about a lonely postman who comes across a set of keys accidentally left in the mailbox by a cute young girl on his route. He makes a copy of her keys and secretly checks out her apartment while she is at work. He also has a habit of disposing of junk mail in an out of the way train tunnel (whether this is out of sheer laziness or to spare the people on his route the bother is never really explained). One day he accidentally falls asleep and is trapped inside the girl's bedroom when she comes home from work and then... well, to give any more away would definitely ruin your enjoyment so I'll stop there. Suffice to say that things get a little more complicated. This quirky little Norwegian film didn't get a whole lot of attention on its US release. Too bad... it's well-written and well-acted and definitely worth checking out. Sort of a kinder and gentler version of "Blue Velvet".