Normal
Pusan International Film Festival
BUSAN, South Korea -- Like the high-profile Reservation Road and White Night (also screening at PIFF), Normal tracks the after-effects of a devastating accident. Constructed like an interconnected character piece a la Short Cuts or Crash, the film doesn't have as much finesse as the former, but is a good deal less manipulative than the latter.
Carl Bessai's latest is intermittently affecting, though too often it wallows in soap opera. Carrie-Anne Moss' dramatic star turn could generate interest for a limited release in its native Canada and possibly on the festival circuit. Theatrical distribution elsewhere seems a long shot.
Catherine (Moss) is the grieving mother of teenager Nicky, traumatized to the point of near paralysis following his death in a drunk-driving accident. She's distanced herself from her husband and neglected her younger son Brady (Cameron Bright, Birth) for two years. Jordie was Nicky's best friend, just out of juvenile detention, and living once again with his overbearing father Carl (Michael Riley) and his young wife Elise (Camille Sullivan). Professor Walt Callum Keith Rennie), who has an autistic brother and a failing marriage, is overwhelmed with guilt at causing the accident that killed Nicky.
For most of its running time, Normal unfolds as a series of vignettes, some vivid and compelling. Catherine's anger and suffering are palpable, as is her family's frustration. Their weariness with her extended mourning is understandable too. The troubled Jordie, with his own burden to bear, is equally believable in his unfocused rage, and Walt's resigned responsibility toward his brother rings true.
When Jordie begins an affair with his stepmother, it's straight out of daytime television, and adds a good dose of unnecessary sordidness to narrative. Not to be outdone, Walt gets in on the sexy plot turns as well, with a student. It's here that Normal steps into the realm of melodrama in its attempt to investigate life in an affluent and white Vancouver suburb.
From the beginning, it's clear that the grief-stricken Catherine and the guilt-ridden Walt are on the sort of collision course. This results in mutual redemption, yet the catharsis is only mildly satisfying.
Bessai gets the strongest performances from Moss, the underrated Rennie (possibly best known now as the Cylon Leoben on Battlestar Galactica) and Zegers, who makes a cliche character believable. Normal functions best as a series of snapshots about lingering guilt, the desire for redemption, and the dangers in allowing grief. But as a whole, Normal isn't quite convincing.
NORMAL
A Mongrel Media, Raven West Films, Submission Films production
Credits:
Director: Carl Bessai
Screenwriters: Travis McDonald, Carl Bessai
Producers: Andrew Boutilier, Carl Bessai
Executive producers: Stephen Hegyes, Shawn Williamson, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross
Director of photography: Carl Bessai
Production designer: Nancy Mossop
Music: Clinton Shorter
Co-producer: Rajvinder Uppal
Costume designer: Michele Maillet
Editor: Lisa Binkley
Cast:
Catherine: Carrie-Anne Moss
Jordie: Kevin Zegers
Walt: Callum Keith Rennie
Dale: Andrew Airlie
Brady: Cameron Bright
Dennis: Tygh Runyan
Abby: Allison Hossack
Sherri: Lauren Lee Smith
Running time --100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BUSAN, South Korea -- Like the high-profile Reservation Road and White Night (also screening at PIFF), Normal tracks the after-effects of a devastating accident. Constructed like an interconnected character piece a la Short Cuts or Crash, the film doesn't have as much finesse as the former, but is a good deal less manipulative than the latter.
Carl Bessai's latest is intermittently affecting, though too often it wallows in soap opera. Carrie-Anne Moss' dramatic star turn could generate interest for a limited release in its native Canada and possibly on the festival circuit. Theatrical distribution elsewhere seems a long shot.
Catherine (Moss) is the grieving mother of teenager Nicky, traumatized to the point of near paralysis following his death in a drunk-driving accident. She's distanced herself from her husband and neglected her younger son Brady (Cameron Bright, Birth) for two years. Jordie was Nicky's best friend, just out of juvenile detention, and living once again with his overbearing father Carl (Michael Riley) and his young wife Elise (Camille Sullivan). Professor Walt Callum Keith Rennie), who has an autistic brother and a failing marriage, is overwhelmed with guilt at causing the accident that killed Nicky.
For most of its running time, Normal unfolds as a series of vignettes, some vivid and compelling. Catherine's anger and suffering are palpable, as is her family's frustration. Their weariness with her extended mourning is understandable too. The troubled Jordie, with his own burden to bear, is equally believable in his unfocused rage, and Walt's resigned responsibility toward his brother rings true.
When Jordie begins an affair with his stepmother, it's straight out of daytime television, and adds a good dose of unnecessary sordidness to narrative. Not to be outdone, Walt gets in on the sexy plot turns as well, with a student. It's here that Normal steps into the realm of melodrama in its attempt to investigate life in an affluent and white Vancouver suburb.
From the beginning, it's clear that the grief-stricken Catherine and the guilt-ridden Walt are on the sort of collision course. This results in mutual redemption, yet the catharsis is only mildly satisfying.
Bessai gets the strongest performances from Moss, the underrated Rennie (possibly best known now as the Cylon Leoben on Battlestar Galactica) and Zegers, who makes a cliche character believable. Normal functions best as a series of snapshots about lingering guilt, the desire for redemption, and the dangers in allowing grief. But as a whole, Normal isn't quite convincing.
NORMAL
A Mongrel Media, Raven West Films, Submission Films production
Credits:
Director: Carl Bessai
Screenwriters: Travis McDonald, Carl Bessai
Producers: Andrew Boutilier, Carl Bessai
Executive producers: Stephen Hegyes, Shawn Williamson, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross
Director of photography: Carl Bessai
Production designer: Nancy Mossop
Music: Clinton Shorter
Co-producer: Rajvinder Uppal
Costume designer: Michele Maillet
Editor: Lisa Binkley
Cast:
Catherine: Carrie-Anne Moss
Jordie: Kevin Zegers
Walt: Callum Keith Rennie
Dale: Andrew Airlie
Brady: Cameron Bright
Dennis: Tygh Runyan
Abby: Allison Hossack
Sherri: Lauren Lee Smith
Running time --100 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/8/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
White Night
Pusan International Film Festival
BUSAN, South Korea -- Jannik Johansen's White Night, like the Danish director's psychological thriller Murk, is a character study, here of a successful real estate agent on a downward spiral after an accidental homicide. In the same way Johansen incrementally increased the tension in his earlier pseudo-mystery, he slowly tracks the protagonist's rocky path to healing.
International film festival play is a surety for White Night, and moderate success at home in Denmark is likely. The film also could find audiences in urban markets for distributors willing to take the chance on this small gem.
After closing another big land sale, Ulrik (Lars Brygmann) goes out with some colleagues for drinks, where they happen upon a surly barfly who starts a fight. Some pushing and shoving result in a devastating fall that kills the man. Ulrik is arrested and held overnight but released when the cause of death is determined accidental. Ulrik tries to return to his old life with his glamorous wife, Camilla Anne Sophie Byder), but can't get past an intensifying sense of guilt.
To this end, Ulrik buys a new home for the dead man's impoverished widow, Karina Rikke Louise Andersson), and her two children. Uncomfortable as she is with Ulrik's motives, Karina accepts his generosity at the urging of her sister. Nonetheless, Ulrik slowly alienates those around him, beginning with Camilla, moving on to his shallow friends and co-workers and his lawyer brother, Bertel (Nicolas Bro). Hovering in the background and compounding Ulrik's anguish is the strained relationship with his father, Jacob (Morten Grunwald).
Brygmann, last seen in Clash of Egos, brings the appropriate combination of hangdog sadness and simmering anger to Ulrik, allowing his shifting emotions to come to the fore. Bro, who starred as the widower in Mork, is excellent in his few scenes as the brother caught between estranged family members. Watching him barely flinch when Ulrik hurls abuse at him is a lesson in emotional control.
Ulrik's life is almost impressionistically shot in icy blues (by Jens Maasbol) whenever he confronts his guilt, and in bright color for the world that lies outside his dilemma. If there's a fault in the film, written by its director and veteran filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen, it's the brief running time. At a compact 96 minutes, Ulrik's crushing burden and subsequent change of heart come on rather swiftly with pat logic and expository dialogue that can come across as lecturing, such as Ulrik's realization about the lack of ethics in his work. It's a point bluntly stated as opposed to intuited in this otherwise cerebral film.
WHITE NIGHT
A Nimbus Film, Fine & Mellow production
Credits:
Director: Jannik Johansen
Screenwriters: Anders Thomas Jensen, Jannik Johansen
Producer: Brigitte Skov, Morten Kaufmann
Director of photography: Jens Maasbøl
Production designer: Charlotte Bech
Music: Jens Unmack, Nikolaj Norlund
Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard
Cast:
Ulrik: Lars Brygmann
Karina: Rikke Louise Andersson
Bertel: Nicolas Bro
Jacob: Morten Grunwald
Camilla: Anne Sophie Byder
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
BUSAN, South Korea -- Jannik Johansen's White Night, like the Danish director's psychological thriller Murk, is a character study, here of a successful real estate agent on a downward spiral after an accidental homicide. In the same way Johansen incrementally increased the tension in his earlier pseudo-mystery, he slowly tracks the protagonist's rocky path to healing.
International film festival play is a surety for White Night, and moderate success at home in Denmark is likely. The film also could find audiences in urban markets for distributors willing to take the chance on this small gem.
After closing another big land sale, Ulrik (Lars Brygmann) goes out with some colleagues for drinks, where they happen upon a surly barfly who starts a fight. Some pushing and shoving result in a devastating fall that kills the man. Ulrik is arrested and held overnight but released when the cause of death is determined accidental. Ulrik tries to return to his old life with his glamorous wife, Camilla Anne Sophie Byder), but can't get past an intensifying sense of guilt.
To this end, Ulrik buys a new home for the dead man's impoverished widow, Karina Rikke Louise Andersson), and her two children. Uncomfortable as she is with Ulrik's motives, Karina accepts his generosity at the urging of her sister. Nonetheless, Ulrik slowly alienates those around him, beginning with Camilla, moving on to his shallow friends and co-workers and his lawyer brother, Bertel (Nicolas Bro). Hovering in the background and compounding Ulrik's anguish is the strained relationship with his father, Jacob (Morten Grunwald).
Brygmann, last seen in Clash of Egos, brings the appropriate combination of hangdog sadness and simmering anger to Ulrik, allowing his shifting emotions to come to the fore. Bro, who starred as the widower in Mork, is excellent in his few scenes as the brother caught between estranged family members. Watching him barely flinch when Ulrik hurls abuse at him is a lesson in emotional control.
Ulrik's life is almost impressionistically shot in icy blues (by Jens Maasbol) whenever he confronts his guilt, and in bright color for the world that lies outside his dilemma. If there's a fault in the film, written by its director and veteran filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen, it's the brief running time. At a compact 96 minutes, Ulrik's crushing burden and subsequent change of heart come on rather swiftly with pat logic and expository dialogue that can come across as lecturing, such as Ulrik's realization about the lack of ethics in his work. It's a point bluntly stated as opposed to intuited in this otherwise cerebral film.
WHITE NIGHT
A Nimbus Film, Fine & Mellow production
Credits:
Director: Jannik Johansen
Screenwriters: Anders Thomas Jensen, Jannik Johansen
Producer: Brigitte Skov, Morten Kaufmann
Director of photography: Jens Maasbøl
Production designer: Charlotte Bech
Music: Jens Unmack, Nikolaj Norlund
Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard
Cast:
Ulrik: Lars Brygmann
Karina: Rikke Louise Andersson
Bertel: Nicolas Bro
Jacob: Morten Grunwald
Camilla: Anne Sophie Byder
Running time -- 96 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/8/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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