deUsynlige

I thought this film was very delicate, very sad, and beautiful. A story of forgiveness and second chances, atonement and renewal. Several motifs I thought were well used, water being one – representing cleansing and new beginnings. Also the use of an out of focus close-up shot of a face (there were 4 or 5 used), in my opinion, to offer the notion of doing something so awful you become unrecognizable even to yourself.

The main character plays the organ, and is mainly the only music used in the film. Which I think works very well, leaving space for moments of contemplation. The two main characters represent polar opposites in what they are trying to do in life (trying to move on from the past v. trying to hold onto the past) – both actors were excellent. I also enjoyed the way the film was divided and structured.

While watching the movie, I felt that this is an exceptional movie and wondered why this movie does not figure along with the greats. Reminded me of 'Blue' for some reason.

Acting is superb and wonderfully subdued acting from the accused protagonist to contrast with the expressive hysterical acting from the mother.

The presentation is so very realistic and the plot is so original - never seen a story like this before.Technique of story telling took an interesting turn when the movie started presenting the same timeline in the life of the parents intersecting naturally and unobtrusively with the thread of the accused's life.

Certain pieces of organ music in the movie are very striking.

There are a few intimate scenes that have been very aesthetically presented. There is no background music whatsoever in the movie and it feels excellently real.

Towards the end of the movie, certain aspects did not fit perfectly. The maker wanted to make the central thread take one decisive knot but unfortunately the build up was slightly unnatural.So many unusual things happen in the movie but a very high percentage of these are explainable by the emotional plight of the protagonists.

Otherwise, it is a perfect screenplay.There is mastery in all the little little details.Very aesthetic.

Jan Thomas Hansen (Pål Sverre Hagen) is in prison for killing a child during his teens. He is released on parole and finds work as a church organist. He befriends the priest Anna and her young son. His victim's mother Agnes (Trine Dyrholm) accidentally spots him in the church as his troubled past resurfaces to cause chaos.

It has a slow plodding pace for most of the movie. The lead is playing the quiet character very close to the vest. It doesn't allow much tension into the first half of the movie. When Agnes is put into the movie, it is a bit of ticking clock for the audience as we wait for the inevitable confrontation. The first half already lays out what is going to happen in much of the second half. Maybe it went one step too far by telling us that the boy goes missing. Nevertheless there is a realism in the performances by both leads. The movie gets much more fascinating with the two characters on the same screen.

I don't comment on movies that often,but this film really moved me. I didn't think Erik Poppe would top his last film Hawaii Oslo,but this film really did something with me emotionally.

It is beautifully shot,with some similarity to Hawaii Oslo, with a warm summer and shots of the city. The music used goes hand in hand with the whole feeling of the film and made me enjoy the film just watching and listening. While watching I got so pulled into the story of the film that it was emotionally painful to watch at times.I actually caught myself screaming at the screen in desperation. The acting must be of the best I've seen in a Norwegian film. Especially the two leading roles impressed me, but Trond Espen Seim is also worth mentioning. I really hope this film gets a wide audience because it really deserve it. I hope this will be Norway's contribution to the Oscars for best foreign film.

When "troubled teens" are embroiled in gangs (ONCE UPON A TIME IN America) or drugs (TRAINSPOTTING, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), it is a life decision, a commitment to those lifestyles that drives their drama.

In the Norwegian film, TROUBLED WATER, a teen commits one thoughtless act that has life-shaking consequences long after he tries to atone for it. He was not driven to it by desire for money, addiction, or broken family, just one lapse in judgment.

Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen won a Norwegian film award for this breakout role as Jan Thomas, who, as a teen, kidnaps a 5-year-old boy. We catch up with Jan in his early 20s, as he completes his sentence in a juvenile jail. We learn he is a principled, sensible guy and a talented organist. He still has flashbacks of that fateful day (that reveal ever more harrowing details) but he wants to put it behind him as he starts a job as a church organist.

Jan seems to find his feet, the church job including an apartment, a bike, welcoming staff (like Terje Strømdahl, who asserts "if he can't get a second chance here, then where?") - and a female priest hot enough to be in ABBA (Ellen Dorrie Petersen as Anna, in her second film role). And Jan gets to rock out with his stops out.

Until the mother of the kidnapped boy recognizes him.

Agnes (veteran Norwegian actress Trine Dyrholm), still mourning her son, mother to two other daughters and a husband who looks like Bjorn Borg (Trond Espen Seim) realizes who Jan is as he performs a stirring version of Simon And Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Erik Poppe (Scandanavian Director of the Year 1994) constructs this tale (written by Harald Rosenløw-Eeg) out of chronological order. As details of Jan's crime are revealed, so too is Agnes's life of subsuming pain for the sake of her family, now opening scabs that will seemingly never heal.

Our allegiances keep flipping from Jan to Agnes and we end up wondering if there is any right resolution to this horrible escalating drama. We are shown every nuanced side of human reaction, from both sides: anger, denial, emptiness, vengeance, warmth, fear, loss of innocence.

As Jan's life coalesces into couplehood with the hot priest and her own 5-year-old, Jens (Fredrik Grøndahl), Agnes is resolute in destroying that relationship completely, to make him feel the loss that he made her feel.

Outside the American system, TROUBLED WATER doesn't need to conform to any arc of redemption. The sun almost shines for Jan, then the waters get dark and cloudy. Wade in...