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Dir. Erik Poppe
Rating: 8.0 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Lance Duroni
This film ought to carry a new brand of parental advisory: Rather than warning parents of content unsuitable for their kids, it would protect the parents themselves from the heart wrenching, soul-shattering events in this Norwegian drama. An unflinching and morally ambiguous tale of a child murder and its aftermath, the film is hands-down one of the most powerful documents this critic has ever witnessed.
The story focuses at first on Jan Thomas (Pal Sverre Valheim Hagen), a recent parolee who maintains his innocence despite being convicted of murdering a child. A gifted organ player, Thomas (going by his middle name for obvious reasons) takes a job at a church upon release. Thomas soon becomes romantically involved with an attractive female priest, Anna (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), and takes on the role of father figure to her son, Jens (Fredrik Grøndahl). This is problematic because Jens bears a striking resemblance to the boy Thomas was accused of killing, conjuring periodic flashbacks to the day of Thomas’s crime. These chilling sequences suggest that Thomas is no cold-blooded killer, but also hint that his testimony in court was not entirely truthful either. Thomas seems to be growing comfortable in his own skin again, helped along by existential conversations with Anna. The Hollywood redemption story is interrupted, however, by a chance encounter with Agnes (Trine Dyrholm), the mother of the boy he was convicted of murdering. Director Erik Poppe then uses crafty chronology to shift to Agnes’s perspective, revisiting previous scenes and somehow managing to maintain a feeling of continuity throughout.
The film deftly blurs the lines between criminal and victim, damnation and redemption, perception and reality -- challenging what we all hold sacred as well as what we deem beyond forgiveness. The acting is good enough to match the intensity of the story, Dyrholm, in particular is absolutely mesmerizing in her vengeful pain. The only meager criticism I can offer is that it might just be too intense to watch in one sitting. Possibly, you can take a couple of breaks in order to hug your pet, or spend some time with your kids. Anything, in other words, to reaffirm your faith in the world.
This DVD comes with one unusual and notable special feature -- a fifteen-minute short film about a soccer player turned executioner in the war in Yugoslavia.
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