Brúðguminn

I saw this last month at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is the fifth film from writer/director and noted Icelandic stage director Baltasar Kormakur. Baltasar and Olafur Egil Egilsson wrote the screenplay as a loose adaptation of Anton Chekhov's stage play Ivanov and the film was developed simultaneously with a stage play that featured the same cast. This was Iceland's official entry as Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards. It has won several awards in Iceland and worldwide and was one of Iceland's biggest domestic box office hits. The setting is on the remote Flatey Island off the north shore of Iceland. University professor Jon (Hilmirsnaer Gudnasson) has an impending marriage to Thora (Laufey Eliasdottir), a former student of his and a girl half his age and only one year after his wife committed suicide. Thor's parents Laurus (Johann Sigurdarsson) and Sisi (Olafia Hronn Jonsdottir) run the islands only store, hotel and tavern and have had a bad business arrangement with Jon. A great cast and a great performance by Thorstur Leo Gunnardsson who plays Jon's rowdy and overbearing friend Borkur who has arrived on the island for the wedding. Great character development central cast and peripheral characters in this romantic drama/comedy. Excellent cinematography by Bergstein Bjorgulfsson and editing by Elisabet Ronaldsdott with art design by Atili Gretarsson and Gretar Reynisson. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

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!

Hmmmmm. And an admiring hmm at that. First thing I thought of is the same kind of emotional juxtaposition or almost confusion that rings through this movie as Reykevik 101 (the director's first film). Back then I was very uncomfortable with that, now still not normal per se but more manageable yet kind of refreshing.

Base on an Chekhov's Ivanov, the film alters back and forth wonderfully over time on events before and immediately leading up to a wedding on an island between an professor and a young girl. While the story's theme obviously stated in the movie and told by the director in Q&A, is about searching for happiness and doing the "right" thing, many hilarious moments are interjected directly with the dramatic moments and vice versa. And these moments of emotional swings are very immediate creating a push and pull effect. And this might affect some audience immersing into the story.

Q&A also brought out the same cast also acted in a stage production of the same play during the same time as the film's release in Iceland and was a very successful run. At times though, I did find a certain "lecturing" aspect in a few of the scenes. So although good, still a very idealistic or somewhat protruding kind of meandering.

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.