Mer eller mindre mann

Mer eller mindre mann ("More or less man") is about 35 year old Henrik, which is expecting his first kid, moving into a new apartment with his girl friend, while starting off with a new job. So far an interesting premise of a comedy which won prizes at the Karlowy Vary film festival.

Henrik has some rather stupid childhood friends, which I find is far more childish than normal for 35 year olds. I find this quite annoying, and rather puts me off the premise of the film. Henrik himself does some incredibly stupid things, and they're not funny, and hardly interesting. However we understand that he is in some Kine of "close to breakdown".

I was expecting a good comedy, due to this, and to a couple of reviews, and since Norwegian movies has been mostly good for the latter years. But apart for a couple of interesting scenes, I can't say I felt more than bored during the film, which happily isn't very long (80 minutes). Martin Lund is debuting with a cinema flick here, both with manuscript and direction, after directing three shorts. Maybe this is what's wrong. Maybe some consulting would have helped here. It takes more to make an interesting film, and so it's said; This not not at all a comedy. Some scenes actually was quite embarrassing to watch, due to it's childish and sexual character. It's far from having the funny scenes needed to be a comedy, and peeing-humour is difficult to make funny.

Henrik Rafaelsen makes a decent role out of Henrik, and so does debuting Solvei Fosse Grimen as Mia. I'm afraid this didn't function for me at all. The only good thing is that we find a trace of a happy ending here. Hope Henrik will have fun with a kid in the family, though I'm not to sure he'll end up as a good father.

Norwegian writer/director Martin Lund won many kudos for this off center comedy about the pangs of growing into adulthood. The film is difficult to label – it is not a comedy per se; it is more of an examination of the process of retardation when approaching the role of an adult and to that end the cast is exemplary in portraying that lost generation married to computers and cellphones and tablets and texting etc that they have not learned how to become responsible for their own lives and those of their families and loved ones.

35-year-old Henrik (Henrik Rafaelsen) is attempting to establish himself in a new responsible job (yes, IT type), lives with a pregnant girlfriend Tone (Janne Heltberg) in a new apartment and still parties with his high school buddies. But he has some rather childish ways of behaving (all of his friends share that degree of foolish nerdism) and Henrik must make the growth spurt that will make him a father instead of a perpetual teenager. The process is called maturing and Henrik is just beginning to experience that realm.

Henrik Rafaelsen has found that plane of innocence stirred with silliness and immaturity while he discovers the consequences of his childish behavior (in one scene he is sitting in a car reading Peter Pan and urinates, full frontal, on the book). There is a lot of horsing around in the gym, full frontal nudity and bizarre behavior among his buddies, and while that sort of 'fun' has its place in a sequestered gym, when it progresses to parties where behavior is not controlled by commonsense self discipline then things happen that result in Henrik's having to explain to Tone.

The film could be simply longwinded boredom were it not for the performances of the main characters. They invite us in and allow us to join them in the transformation toward adulthood. For that reason the film is really quite fine – it just takes patience and understanding.

There remains a high level of tension throughout the film for the comedy to really be explored fully. I am becoming more fond of Scandinavian movies because of the dynamic between the people. Here we see someone challenging the laws of an otherwise peaceful society, whether it is making random inappropriate scenes in grocery stores with their girlfriend or challenging someone about why they let them walk around with a booger in their nose. Either of these incidences could be kinda lame but the direction and energy of the movie make it really fun to watch. As is a scene at a bus stop but that's all I'll say as this movie really you need to watch to get hooked