“Writer-Director Joachim Trier likes to prod beneath the surface without providing easy answers. He seems more interested in reactions, reflections and human frailties rather than clever plot twists. To achieve this you need a cast of very good actors. Fortunately, his cast are brilliant.”
Con Nats
4.5 Clapboards
Opens Boxing Day 2025
This award-winning Norwegian film is an interesting alternative to the usual Xmas blockbuster but with themes about family, it’s a nice reflective alternative.
Nora (Renate Reinsve) has a panic attack before she goes on stage as the lead actress in a play. Fortunately, she is very good.
Her mother had recently passed away and at the wake her estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skasgârd) turns up. Sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) is less surprised. She’s had more contact and her seven-year old son is a focal point of their joy. But Gustav has a mission.
Gustav Borg is a widely respected film director, and he wants Nora to take the lead in his next film. He hasn’t made a film for 15 years but his new script, which is semi-biographical, is an impressive one.
Nora turns him down but rising young starlet Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) doesn’t. She is having difficulties landing the role and understanding the lead female character. There is a lot beneath the surface and as she prods, more of the family history comes out as the sisters now need to confront their largely absent father and navigate their now changing world.
Writer-Director Joachim Trier likes to prod beneath the surface without providing easy answers. He seems more interested in reactions, reflections and human frailties rather than clever plot twists. To achieve this you need a cast of very good actors. Fortunately, his cast are brilliant.
Stellan Saskârg has a long list of impressive credits and taken on all sorts of roles, from comedy to drama to Marvel. This role as a flawed father is one of his finest.
Joachim Trier had given Renate Reinsve her break out role in The Worst Person In The World and wrote this script for her. Nora has all sorts of layers and insecurities and Reinsve navigates them all. She is simply brilliant and even though she only shares one scene with Fanning, she shows what a different level she is on. She lights up every scene, even in her dark ones. They are talking Oscars for her and she should start making more space on her mantle.
The script doesn’t neglect sister Agnes who goes from being a fulcrum to being a decisive pivot. Lilleaas also rises to the challenge. Her scenes with Reinsve feel so genuine you’re sure there is a real relationship. Some of their lines are unscripted. Elle Fanning is very good and she manages her tight rope of being ‘American’ without being a caricature.
The film is nicely shot, although on a technical level I found the cuts between scenes to be clumsy. And Trier has gone for hand-held photography. Both are minor irritations as the characters fill their scenes with the sheer weight of their acting. Some of the best scenes are ones with no dialogue.
This is a typical Norwegian film – slow burning and looking at the humanity beneath our facades. It stands miles above the melodramatic, soundscape driven formulaic American films striving for an award nomination. It’s a film with a wealth of sentimental value.
4.5 Clapboards
Con Nats, On The Screen
