The Oath (Le serment d'Hippocrate)

This was my first adventure into Icelandic films but hopefully, not my last. The storyline is not new. How many fathers have a stroppy son or daughter who mixes with the most unsavoury people? The film centres around how the doctor dad handles his daughter's involvement with a drug dealer who threatens him when he causes a new stash of drugs to fall into the hands of the police. How the doctor punishes the drug dealer is bizarre to say the least. He doesn't want to kill him but just wants to hold him long enough to get him to promise to leave his daughter alone. In a country with a population of only 350,000 people surely the police have a handle on who the major drug operators are. The plot fits into the cold and bleak Icelandic landscape quite well but it's not a film that will live long in the memory.

We've seen this story told many times before but this still seems fresh and the acting is quite good. A little slow to get started but when it does, it's quite suspenseful. It's worth a watch, and the Icelandic settings are a relief from the usual American locales.

''The Oath'' (original title: ''Eiðurinn'') is an Icelandic production, directed by the famous auteur, Baltasar Kormákur who gave us the exceptional ''Jar City'' in 2006 -a film based on a novel by Arnaldur Indridason- and is also the creator of the compelling television series, ''Trapped''. Kormákur is also the screenwriter of this film along with Ólafur Egilsson, and the protagonist as he portrays Finnur, an upper-class surgeon and father of Anna, a troubled teenager who is madly in love with a low-life criminal, Óttar (Gísli Örn Garðarsson is great in his performance). Of course, Finnur doesn't approve of his daughter's relationship and he is willing to do anything in order to win her back and be a family once again. But things spiral out of control and Finnur finds himself in a tough spot where he has to violate the Hippocratic Oath -this is the titular ''oath''- that every doctor takes in the beginning of his career, or lose his offspring for good. The plot unfolds on a rather steady tempo and the viewer has the opportunity to indulge in the great cinematography of the movie which is one of its greatest merits. The Icelandic landscape is a character in itself and always triggers a variety of gloomy, melancholic feeling that suits the story perfectly. ''The Oath'' is an emotional story about the existence -or not- of limits in the actions of a parent who wants to save his child from corruption and decay. The finale is moving and unconventional, giving the viewer's imagination space for his own interpretation. The production values of the film are of high quality and I think that ''The Oath'' is a better movie from the majority of the crime films produced in Hollywood. Baltasar Kormákur proves -once again- that he is a rising star in direction and that his point of view is insightful as well as humane.

This movie did some things right, but also failed at many occasions. I liked the setting, the camera work, some of the actors (the daughter showed some decent acting), and the composition of most of the scenes, i.e. the background, was well done.

What I did not like was the main actor, who has a cinema-suited face, but that's all he has. Maybe he was told to not show any emotions, or he is just not able to. In either case he was really boring to watch, he did not seem emotionally involved in the scenes. You will also get some blatant product placement, which should have been done more subtle. If you need money for your film and you have to put in some product, at least do it in a way that's not so much in your face. The main actor, his wife, and the police chief were also poorly designed. They are full of cliché, and do not have those interesting traits that would make them a person which is somewhat believable. It seems that the main character was mostly designed in way that they could show off some "cool looking" scenery and camera work, his "hobbies" seemed to be chosen just for this reason. The wife of the main character seems only to be there to show a worried face and smoke. She did not say anything interesting or important.

The story was OK, for a TV-Thriller, but the other flaws did not allow me to get into it. And some scenes were just completely unnecessary. Anyway, I am writing this because no one else has written a review, and the current score is misleading, if you ask me.

Good tense plot with no slack in it. Acting by Baltazar was very good in keeping with the character. Nice scenery no 'fill the time moments'. Worth the watch.