SunnyHello
Nice effects though.
Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Nicole C
This film is pretty complex and has a rather confusing storyline. It engages the past with the present, and there are two parallel narratives. At first the timing of both narratives is unclear, but the flashbacks are noticeably of the past. That was the main issue I had with the film. But the end ties everything together and only in the second half will you begin to understand what is really going on. It is also complex in that it deals with some of the more complicating aspects of human nature - family, love, lust, and death. However the film does do a good job of creating a mystery, which makes it a pretty good crime film. It seems like the clues they find don't really lead anywhere, but bit by bit the pieces start to fit together and each clue leads to the next. The film feels slow and stagnant at times but is pretty enjoyable.The acting is also pretty good, though of course there is the cultural difference to consider with regards to the characters. Though they can be related to come characters from the normal western detective film, the characters do have a sense of locality. The film introduces quite a lot of characters, but we do not get to know them in depth. For the sake of this show however it works, as the story is rather complex and needs to establish relations between many characters.The overall mood of the film is pretty heavy, and it seems like something bad might happen any second. It gives an eerie feel at times, and the vast landscape shots hint at isolation and despair.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com
vincenthetreed
Inspector Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurðsson) has to investigate a "messy and pointless" murder. A dirty old man has had his head bashed in in his flat. "Typical Icelandic", he thinks. Iceland just touches the Arctic circle. It's a long way from anywhere else. It is grey and gritty, spectacular and melancholy, buffeted by blasts of wind, snow and steam. Against this background Erlendur doggedly untangles the connections and the crimes of the past, digging up corpses and secrets shameful or tragic. Landscape and society alike are revealed and commented on, drily and laconically.Being based on a novel by Iceland's most successful crime writer, the characters are as well known to the home audience as Rebus, for instance, is in Britain, and carry enough of the baggage of real life to make them credible and sympathetic. There are visual themes of burials and exhumations, post-mortems, pathology labs and fast food, and a sound track of male voices shading into electronic moans and growls, which in turn dissolve into the wind. It's a very well-constructed package, which is thought provoking, gruesome, touching and funny, and it's certainly worth seeing.
Adam Wallace
Jar City is an excellent police procedural thriller, yet also far more than just that. It takes the biggest issues in human life, loss, past secrets, family loyalties, human decency and wasted lives and spins them into a flawless thread with the traditional fare of the detective plot, hidden crimes, corruption, suspense and plot twists.The filming style is refreshing for anyone raised on Hollywood who-dunnit's, with real locations and down to earth acting; on a par with Mississippi Burning IMO. That it's in Icelandic as an English speaker made no difference to me, I was gripped by this film. Jar City, the frailty of human life displayed!
stefarn-1
Having read all of Arnaldur Indriðason's novels, I was very pleased when I heard that Baltasar Kormákur was planning to make this film. The press immediately started a sort of a Scarlett O'Hara search, in terms of finding an actor capable of portraying detective inspector Erlendur. When Ingvar Sigurðsson was finally chosen, I must admit that I wasn't that keen, as I felt that he was not at all the right type. Having seen the film now I must admit that I need not have worried. Ingvar Sigurðsson's portrayal of Erlendur is first class throughout, both the bitter and tender aspects of that complex character. All the cast is indeed great, most notable though Atli Rafn Sigurðsson as the grieving father, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir as Eva Lind, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson and Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir, as Erlendur's associates Sigurður Óli and Elínborg, and Theódór Júlíusson as the veteran hooligan Elliði. The cinematography is the best I've seen in any Icelandic film, the editing "par excellence", and the music extremely powerful. One has to give credit to the Reykjavik Police Choir, for the excellent singing. This is a film that everyone has to see, and I'm quite certain that it will scoop up quite a few awards at various film festivals. Keep on at it Baltasar. And hopefully you will bring other novels by Arnaldur Indriðason, such as Grafarþögn and Röddin to the silver screen.
