Jar City

Baltasar Kormákur was there to answer questions at the first screening of this excellent film at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2007. He did a terrific job, both of directing the film and of untangling some of the details for us after the screening.

This was a film that we picked up at the last minute, to see on the first day of the festival. We went in with absolutely no expectations and were thrilled to find one of the best films of the festival laid out before us.

Everything about this film was outstanding: casting, sets and locations, acting, directing, and the subtitling was unobtrusive but effective. It has a wonderful black humour to it in spots, too. No wonder Iceland has chosen this film as its Oscar contender.

I know I'll see this film again! Not only that, but I've ordered all of the books in the series by Arnaldur Idridason that I could find in translation, because I found his story so compelling and want to read the further adventures of Detective Erlendur. I sincerely hope Kormákur directs more of them.

This is an Icelandic movie about a murder, the only clue to which is a picture of a headstone of a five year old girl that died 30 years ago. In parallel to that, there is also a story of a genetic researcher whose four year old daughter has just died. How do these stories tie together? That is what makes the movie so intriguing. The story structure is such that the lead detective, Erlunder (played compellingly by Ingvar E. Sigurðsson), must investigate a crime from 30 years ago in order to solve the murder he's got on his hands now. Surprisingly, this is done with a bare minimum of flashbacks (I counted two), neither of which are to the original girl's death. The director, Baltasar Kormákur, sets a dreary tone using a muted color palette and wide shots of bleak terrain surrounding the city. The stark architecture only adds to this feeling of despair. A side story of Erlendur's relationship with his drug addicted daughter adds depth to the overall story by fleshing out the point of view character. This is by no means an amazing film, but it is very good. The supporting characters don't stand out much, but rather seem to be foils for Erlendur to play off of. This was apparently based on one of a series of crime novels and I'd be very interested to see adaptations of the others if the story quality is as consistent as this one.

If you like your crime thrillers with imagination,good directing & superb acting, then 'Myrin' is for you. This Scandanavian cold case cop thriller concerns a police officer who is on a 30 year-old murder case involving the death of a 5 year old girl,while also trying to solve a more recent murder most foul. The officer is also trying to balance all of this while dealing with his own drug addicted daughter who is always trying to cage money off of her dad. Along the way, we are treated to some of Iceland's slimy criminal underworld (including those on the police force). I really admired the photography,which balances some rather bleak,wintry scenes,balanced with the rugged beauty of the Icelandic countryside (the use of muted colour really works for the tone of this rather bleak,pessimistic film). The film also makes good use of some black humour. As this film has no U.S. distribution,it will be a bit of a chore finding a cinema that screens quality films like this. No MPAA rating, but would most likely land an 'R', for every possible reason (raunchy language,violence,some of it pretty bloody & gory,and some very adult situations). Leave the small fry's home for this one (it would probably freak them out,anyway)

Jar City is an excellent police procedural thriller, yet also far more than just that. It takes the biggest issues in human life, loss, past secrets, family loyalties, human decency and wasted lives and spins them into a flawless thread with the traditional fare of the detective plot, hidden crimes, corruption, suspense and plot twists.

The filming style is refreshing for anyone raised on Hollywood who-dunnit's, with real locations and down to earth acting; on a par with Mississippi Burning IMO. That it's in Icelandic as an English speaker made no difference to me, I was gripped by this film. Jar City, the frailty of human life displayed!

This is a well made, enjoyable crime thriller that manages to sustain tension and interest throughout its run time and marries this with some well handled comic moments. The main character, Erlunder, is a multi-layered and believable, ageing, seen-it-all-before cop, while the scenes involving discovery of dead bodies are skin-crawlingly well acted and nauseously realistic.

However, given the kind of budgets and talent available to producers of TV crime series these days, Jar City suffers from the fact that the plot really could form an episode of CSI:Rejkjavik or, dare I say it Taggart (a old British crime series). There are no huge surprises or twists in the tail - it is, essentially, a standard, old fashioned who/why dunnit.

However, what sets Jar City apart from CSI and its ilk is the cinematography. Obviously I've seen images of Iceland before - but I've never seen it captured in such a bleak, but beautiful fashion. Iceland itself is centrally important to the character of this film (and might even be said to be one of the characters) and its strangely picturesque scenery and, in some cases, downright weirdness, make Jar City worth watching just for this alone.