DVD Clubs

The Bothersome Man (Den Brysomme mannen) (Director: Jens Lien, Norway/Iceland, 2006): “Forty-year-old Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apart­ment — even a wife. But before long, Andreas notices that some­thing is wrong. He makes an attempt to escape the city, but he dis­covers there is no way out.” I remember reading this syn­opsis in the pro­gramme guide at TIFF last year and wanting to see this film. Now, thanks to the folks at Film Movement, I can. Well, tech­nic­ally, I can’t, since Film Movement doesn’t offer sub­scrip­tions to Canadians, but they were nice enough to send me some films to review, and I’d encourage any of our American readers to check them out if you haven’t already. A new indie or for­eign film every month for less than the price of two cinema tickets. Now, on to the film:

I’ve always been a fan of Nordic humour; dry and deadpan, as in the films of Aki Kaurismäki. Lien’s film is that, with a touch of Kafka thrown in. You see, Andreas arrives in the strange city after throwing him­self in front of a subway train, and this extremely pleasant after­life turns out to be hell, after all. Food is taste­less, there are no chil­dren, and everyone seems obsessed with dec­or­ating and fur­niture. Even sex is boring, though it seems easily avail­able. In fact, everyone seems to go out of their way to make sure Andreas is happy. Only, he’s not. For all the polite kind­ness he finds, it seems that Andreas can’t find love. There is no real con­nec­tion between anyone in this nether world. No con­flict, granted, but no pas­sion at all. All talk is small talk.

The only glimmer of hope comes when he dis­covers a crack in the wall of a new acquaintance’s apart­ment. Through the crack they hear music, and can smell won­derful scents. Is this a way back to the world of the living?

The clever thing about the film is that seen in a cer­tain way, it could very well be a com­mentary on the real world, espe­cially the Western world of banal social pleas­ant­ries and mind­less con­sumerism, and in par­tic­ular, the well-meaning socialist wel­fare states of Scandinavia. It’s a safe world (one unfor­get­table scene has Andreas trying to repeat his subway sui­cide, to no effect), but one without vitality.

Lien has care­fully wrapped his sharp social cri­ti­cism in a witty and at times absurd film that is equal parts horror and sci­ence fic­tion. Forget 28 Weeks Later. These are the scarier zombies.

Note: Film Movement fea­tured this film as their Year 5 Film 3.

Official site for the film

(8/10)

Tagged as: DVD, DVD Clubs, Film Movement, iceland, norway, suicide

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