Nord

(2009) North/ Nord (In Norwegian with English subtitles) DRAMA

Watching this movie reminded me of a Norwegian western since it has him snowmobiling from place to place, shack to shack, who smokes always asking for booze except that it's through the gorgeous snowy climate. Sometimes he steals things from other peoples barns for the tools he needs. The thin plot device only serves as a backdrop to the vast snowy landscapes the average Norwegian citizen lives on, which is no different than any desert people cross through throughout the world. It stars Anders Baasmo Christiansen as one-time skier Jomar Henriksen who works at a ski resort who gets a passerby visit from a friend. Jomar's friend informs him that his son misses his biological dad, even though it was him that Jomar's ex had cheated on and then left with, creating an awkward rift. Jomar is not motivated to see his son until an unfortunate circumstance were to happen, and that is when he ends up burning the resort where he'd been staying in which he has to go somewhere up "north"- hence the title. One of my favorite highlights is when Jomar gets taken in by a little girl who lives with her grandmother when he got freezer burn on his eyes. This movie is not for all tastes since it can be deemed as slow and subtle. Some of the characters Jomar meets along the way are eccentric and quirky which is what keeps this film interesting.

I saw this last month at the 2010 Palm Springs International film Festival. This is a quirky dark comedy written for the screen by Erlend Loe who also wrote a book that another great quirky Norwegian film was adapted from recently called in it's English title Gone with the Woman. Nord reminded me an an abstract sense of the film Little Big Man where the lead character goes through a journey meeting a wide variety of people along the way in wonderful small on screen roles with even an old wise and worldly Saami fisherman waiting to die instead of an old wise and worldly native American waiting to die. Jomar (Anders Bassmo Christiansen) is a former skier who works at a ski hill and has battled alcoholism and has been hospitalized with psychiatric problems since he lost his girlfriend five years earlier. After a fight with his former best friend Lasse (Kyree Hellum) he learns his former girlfriend had a son by him so he sets out on a snowmobile for an improbably long journey of a few hundred miles to northern Norway near the arctic circle. He meets along the way some very isolated people in Lotte (Marte Aumemo) and her grandmother, Ulrik (Mads Sjøgård Pettersen), and Ailo and his granddaughter. (Lars Olsen). Excellent winter scape cinematography by Phillip Øgaard and smartly directed by Rune Denstad Langlo this is not a long film and it's definitely worth a look. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

I felt that this film had a problem with the lack of story.

Somehow the film starts brilliantly and there is a brilliant scene with a teenager boy who has, at the least to say, a lot of problems.

Those were the brilliant parts of the film. I thought after the first 15 minutes, that this is going to be a masterpiece, but then it just dies. The plot vanishes and somehow the ending doesn't give enough to justify the lack of the plot.

The main actor does a fantastic job and there is a lot of good in the cinematography, although I sometimes felt that this was an advertisement of Norway. There were so many landscape shots that you could easily get bored with them.

The music choice was also a little bit odd. It sounded like a country-tune coming straight from Texas. Do people like country music in Norway? Even with it's problems, it is a nice film to watch as an voice from Norway.

North is a drama out of Norway, and from the looks of it, a pretty desolate part of the country. Jomar is a 30 year old recovering from some traumatic experience. He used to ski, now he can barely get off the couch to do his job, which is not very taxing. His woman left him, after trying to be patient and help him get his act together for some time. Jomar finds out he has a son with her, who is now four. That and another happenstance spur him to head North to find Linnea and meet this kid. Jomar is snowmobiling through back country. When he finds a house or fishing hut or tent, he stops and has various encounters with the people. It makes me concerned for my Norwegian heritage that Jomar and most of the people he meets seem to be completely nuts. He also ends up setting stuff on fire, on occasion. It's a disturbing, yet interesting, road trip. The audience at my screening seemed to find a lot of it hilarious, while I was busy being concerned. I give North a 7 out of 10.

Unassuming little movie about a sad man who has trouble fitting in, no matter where he goes. Leaving a trail of smoking shacks and burning barns, Jomar is headed north on his snow mobile to seek out his son. He doesn't always travel in a straight line, but who said you have to? On the way, he meets his share of strangers, some of them friendly, others not so friendly. But then, Jomar isn't the most easy-going of visitors himself. You might say he is on an educational journey, but the lessons aren't all that clear. Among other things, he finds out about a unique way to get drunk that involves a razor, a patch of sandpaper, and a tampon. He also learns about the ancient art of springtime suicide as practiced by the tribal elders of Troms County. Cheating death more than once in the unforgiving wilderness of Northern Norway, he is finally given back to life. - Nice, eclectic soundtrack with some rare roots tracks.