This unequivocally powerful Norwegian movie of just 24 hours in
the life of a desperately sad recovering heroin addict and his struggle with
his personal demons leaves one feeling totally drained and numb. This long
drawn out day starts with 34 year old Anders leaving some unknown woman in a
nondescript motel and making his way to a nearby lake where he tries unsuccessfully to drown himself.
Back at the rehab center where he lives and is about to leave as he has
finished his treatment and has been ‘clean' for 10 months, we find out that he is
about to set off for a job interview as a first step to move back to the
outside world. But we soon find out that he is not simply going through the
motions of his planned schedule but in this rare chance of going into
the City, he’s also visiting key people from his past anxiously searching for a
reason to go on with his life.
Anders is articulate. intelligent and despite all
his issues, extremely likable too. So too are the people in his life, but as
the day doesn't pan out exactly as he wants (or maybe it does?) he increasingly
puts his sobriety at risk, which acute raises our own heightened concerns. By the time he has ‘blown’ the job interview
for an editorial job he would have probably got, and is now at a Birthday Party
for one of his ex girlfriends, the pressure on Anders seems
insurmountable. This story may be played
out over 24 hours but in actuality this quiet melancholic man is dealing with his whole life to date.
There are two things in particular which make this
second feature from young Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier (who also co-wrote
the script), so remarkable exceptional. Firstly
there this the script itself. Despite the fact that Anders was a academic, his
conversations with this friends that touch on the bare bones of his catastrophic depression are
not over-intellectualized in anyway but deal very much with his reality. And secondly, there is the devastatingly compelling
performance by Anders Daneklison Lie which has you rooting for his character to
pull through from the very first scene to the end. (And no spoilers here as to what that is.)
I should add that these two young talented geniuses viz. Mr. Lie and Mr. Trier have made an achingly
beautiful and moving film that will haunt me for some time yet.
★★★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★★★
