This is the most recognized international feature at the Oscars this year, up for quite a few of the big awards. A dysfunctional family drama from Norway, the movie is kind of slow-moving, but it rewards your attention. And considering I don’t watch that many Scandinavian films, it’s neat that there are a few familiar actors in this!
Nora and Agnes’s mom just died, and their dad Gustav, a famous movie director, has come back to town. He’s brought along the first script he’s written in years. He wants to shoot the movie in the home where both he and his daughters were raised, and he wants Nora, a theatre actress with intense stage fright, to star in it—in fact, Gustav says he wrote the part for her. However, working with her dad is the last thing Nora wants to do.
It’s fitting that the film opens on a childhood montage of Nora and Agnes, played over an old school essay in which she personifies their house. The house is the setting for multiple generations of trauma. That’s probably part of the reason the girls so rarely saw Gustav after their parents’ divorce, running away from painful old memories. The film Gustav wants to make in it contains a jumble of that trauma and stirs a lot of things up.
Although Nora is the older sister, she often feels like Agnes is the one with her life more on track. Agnes is married with a son and has a steady job. Meanwhile, it’s a battle for Nora to make herself walk out onstage, and her commitment issues have her reaching for the safe transience of an affair with a married man. Agnes is the one who checks in when Nora withdraws, who stops by to make sure she’s taking care of herself, and Nora is the one who thinks Agnes isn’t mad enough at Gustav for only opting into fatherhood when he feels like it.
Both girls, however, have a fraught relationship with their dad. Nora’s takes pride of place, but Agnes has her own history with Gustav, and those issues resurface when he starts talking about wanting to cast her son in a small role in the film. Complicating things further is the insertion of Rachel Kemp, the American actress Gustav brings on when Nora turns him down.
The movie is up for nine Oscars, including Best Picture, Best International Feature, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and four acting awards. Renate Reinsve, who I remember from The Worst Person in the World a few years ago, is excellent as Nora, a mess of a young woman who’s trying to make sense of her life amid the whirlwind her dad has kicked off. Stellan Skarsgård, who I now know best as Luthen on Andor, delivers a fine performance as Gustav. It’s painful to watch his easy charm with strangers when his daughters feel ignored by him, and it seems like the only way he can truly express his love for them is through his work. I’m not familiar with Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, but she does a great job as Agnes. Though her role is less flashy than Reinsve’s, Ibsdotter Lilleaas offers a nice counterpoint, and when she gets her few spotlight scenes, they don’t disappoint. Joining the Scandinavian cast is Elle Fanning as Rachel. What’s impressive here is the way she portrays an actress who isn’t quite nailing her performance, knows it, but isn’t sure how to fix it. That has to be a tough needle for an actor to thread, and Fanning really captures it.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements (including discussion of suicide,) sexual content, violence (including references to wartime torture,) language, and drinking.
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