PALM SPRINGS -- Suffused with the crystalline light of its Nordic setting, Iceland's foreign-language Oscar submission is a film of stark physical beauty. But the story of "Cold Light" never takes hold in a way that will matter to viewers, and its split time frame gradually feels less essential than distracting. The drama of a man haunted by a childhood trauma screened recently at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
"Cold Light" centers on 40-ish Grimur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson), whose solitary life begins to change when he enters art school. Working (and existing) on an intuitive plane, at first he doesn't understand the concept of sketching from life -- instead channeling his own visions about the model. But that failure to follow instructions doesn't stop his English-speaking teacher, Linda (Ruth Olafsdottir), from pursuing him. Soon they're involved in a (mostly off-camera) relationship, but when she tells him she's pregnant, he retreats.
As the audience knows from the flashbacks that dominate the film, a devastating long-ago event makes Grimur reluctant to take emotional chances. Writer-director Hilmar Oddsson, adapting the novel by Vigdis Grimsdottir, builds slowly toward the revelation of that disaster. When the incident unfolds onscreen, young actor Aslakur Ingvarsson, as the young Grimur, brings an impressive emotional power to the scene. He clearly has inherited talent from his father, the film's lead -- and the resemblance is a definite asset as well. Another plus is that the actress playing his sister, Snaefridur Ingvarsdottir, is his real-life sibling.
With their deft psychological observations and supernatural elements, the childhood scenes of rural family life are far more compelling and believable than those set in the present. The modern-day sections suffer from a chilly, mannered reserve and seem to exist only to make a point about emotional scars. But we don't see enough of the relationship between Grimur and Linda to care whether those scars heal.
Cinematographer Sigurdur Sverrir Palsson captures the wind-lashed Icelandic terrain with striking camerawork, lending this fractured memory piece a visual clarity that doesn't extend to the narrative itself.
"Cold Light" centers on 40-ish Grimur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson), whose solitary life begins to change when he enters art school. Working (and existing) on an intuitive plane, at first he doesn't understand the concept of sketching from life -- instead channeling his own visions about the model. But that failure to follow instructions doesn't stop his English-speaking teacher, Linda (Ruth Olafsdottir), from pursuing him. Soon they're involved in a (mostly off-camera) relationship, but when she tells him she's pregnant, he retreats.
As the audience knows from the flashbacks that dominate the film, a devastating long-ago event makes Grimur reluctant to take emotional chances. Writer-director Hilmar Oddsson, adapting the novel by Vigdis Grimsdottir, builds slowly toward the revelation of that disaster. When the incident unfolds onscreen, young actor Aslakur Ingvarsson, as the young Grimur, brings an impressive emotional power to the scene. He clearly has inherited talent from his father, the film's lead -- and the resemblance is a definite asset as well. Another plus is that the actress playing his sister, Snaefridur Ingvarsdottir, is his real-life sibling.
With their deft psychological observations and supernatural elements, the childhood scenes of rural family life are far more compelling and believable than those set in the present. The modern-day sections suffer from a chilly, mannered reserve and seem to exist only to make a point about emotional scars. But we don't see enough of the relationship between Grimur and Linda to care whether those scars heal.
Cinematographer Sigurdur Sverrir Palsson captures the wind-lashed Icelandic terrain with striking camerawork, lending this fractured memory piece a visual clarity that doesn't extend to the narrative itself.
- 3/14/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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