The Oath (Le serment d'Hippocrate)

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.

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.

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.

I like Kormákur as an actor and director but not here, the plot is illogical, I agree with other reviewer about full of cliché, unnecessary dialogues. Look like Baltasar Kormákur tried to put little pieces from different thrillers in this, just hope his next work will be good as usual.

Possible Spoilers!

I gave this very worthy flick 10 stars just to redress the balance of the negative reviews it has received here.

Works on all levels. The dramatic tension is consistent throughout. The father/daughter relationship is very realistic, particularly her lack of self awareness and immaturity wich are very recognisable traits of addicts.

Gísli Örn Garðarsson was convincing as Ottar. He wasn't painted as just a two dimensional villain. Just as real villains are not just villains. They love, have families, have a sense of humour, pets and hobbies and are often victims of bigger villains than themselves.

I laud Baltasar Kormakur as both a fine director and actor.