|
ANGELS
OF THE UNIVERSE
5/10
Englar
Alheimsins : Iceland 2000
director
: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
script : Einar Mar Gudmundsson (based on his novel)
cinematography : Harald Paalgard
editing : Sigvaldi J Karason, Skule Eriksen
music : Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson
lead actors : Ingvar E Sigurdsson, Baltasar Kormakur, Bjorn Jorundur Fridbjornsson,
Margret Helga Johannsdottir
also : Halldora Geirhardsdottir, Petur Einarsson, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason
97 minutes
Paul
(Sigurdsson) is an artistic, thirtysomething Icelander with mental health
problems. After he’s dumped by his girlfriend Dagny (Geirhardsdottir),
his increasingly violent behaviour overwhelms his ineffectual parents
- he’s taken to a mental hospital and diagnosed schizophrenic, Paul befriends
scruffy Oli (Kormakur), a musician claiming to be the author of all the
Beatles’ songs, and dapper Viktor (Fridbjornsson), who occasionally believes
himself to be Hitler. Paul’s condition apparently stabilises under treatment
and he’s allowed home – but he’s a long way from being well…
Angels
is often fantastic to look at, and even better to listen to - but
the impressive cinematography and atmospheric, eclectic soundtrack can’t
hide the script’s grindingly over-familiar convolutions. This is a strictly
by-the-numbers exploration of mental illness, with a thoroughly predictable
structure as Paul rises and falls, rises and falls. Sigurdsson’s central
performance is serviceable enough, but, like the project as a whole, firmly
within the established parameters of this type of drama. Johannesdottir
(as Paul’s mother) and Kormakur, however, contribute relatively restrained,
low-key performances that belong in another, better movie.
A
movie, for instance, that avoids makes Gudmundsson’s trite points about
the artificial division between ‘sane’ and ‘normal’ people, and about
the mental health of society as a whole. The cliches accumulate almost
as fast as the loose ends: Dagny completely vanishes from the scene early
on, and is never referred to again. Rognvald, Paul’s conventionally successful
best friend, likewise comes and goes in a distractingly unfocussed manner.
His hospital acquaintance Paul (Gudnason) is another underdeveloped character,
making it all the odder that so much of the late going revolves around
his melodramatic back story.
The
film’s highlight comes when Oli takes Paul along as he pays an impromptu
visit to the Icelandic president in what’s presumably the official residence
– a cosy and small-scale structure, exactly what you’d expect from such
a cosy, small-smale country. But even here, Kormakur is let down by Gudmundsson
and Fridriksson’s uncertainty of tone – the scene ends with the audience
unsure whether we’re watching is fantasy or reality. In more skilled hands,
the ambiguity might be productive. Not so here.
By
the end, even Fridriksson’s visual daring starts to grate, with a distracting
over-reliance on having characters fade away from view while their surroundings
remain vivid. Worse, he repeats unpleasant footage of a horse breaking
down: a potentially potent, poetic image that ends up feeling opportunistic,
cheaply manipulative and arbitrarily distressing – like Angels
itself.
5th
January, 2002
(seen
on video, Jan-4-02)
by Neil
Young
-
|
