Mother's Elling (2003)

Simply A Masterpiece

Pretty Good

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I loved Elling. It was a beautiful movie. Amazing, funny and touching. So I was really looking further to this movie. However this was a huge disappointment.Mors Elling has different director from its predecessor and seems like a completely different movie altogether. It is a prequel to Elling and shows the events till the death of his mother, from where Elling starts. It is much more darker than the previous film and more realistic too. But in doing this it loses all the charm of Elling.For fans of Elling I would recommend skipping this movie altogether and watching Elsk meg i morgen instead. It is third film of the trilogy and follows the events of Elling. Though even that is not good as Elling, it is still watchable and much better than this movie.

So Elling adds another experience of Nordic Films for me. Not being familiar with the previous movies staring this special person I stumbled into this little gem of a movie. To my opinion characters are fairly good depicted and act in rather believable way. Add to this a nice plot, some very comic and also some tragic moment and it will make up the kind of film I love: you may laugh at times, you even shed the small tear at times and you feel the world is not as bad as it may seem sometimes after watching.Very enjoying, I recommend to everyone who is interested in some good European cinema. Punchline: "They translate the menu into German, English and Swedish. Why not Norwegian - the oil business language of the world?"

I haven't seen its prequel or sequel and from what I witnessed in this travesty of a film, I don't intend to. Although a different director than the other two, this adaptation of Ingvar Ambjørnsens book butchers my interest in the other films. And sadly to say also the source material.This film deals with Elling, a character so unlikely that he could only appear in a Norwegian film. Not only are the characters walking clichés, but they talk like no Norwegians ever do, except when on stage as actors in a play.And Elling is an impossible creature. Supposedly a social imbecile and lightly retarded, he somehow is portrayed as one of the most eloquent and poignant individuals you'll ever meet. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Elling is a fantasy concoction of how a mentally challenged person is. When was the last time you met a socially inadequate human being who could easily spellbind pretty much anyone? Never happened, never will... I'm not trying to offend mentally challenged people, I'm simply deconstructing how Elling's character is put together. At least when you want to make a portrait of someone at the side of what's "normal", please make an effort to give him more than one dimension, no matter how bogus they are. Respect your audience.The dialogue in this film means only one thing for me: sheer, physical pain. I wonder how I managed to stay tuned in for as long as I did. As I said, the dialogue executed in this film is non-existent outside Norwegian theaters and unfortunately many previous Norwegian films. But even if the script was better and the director had at least the tiniest clue about preparing actors for talking on screen, this film kind of looks like a theater play converted to the big screen: The framing is cheap and uninspired, the locations are uninteresting, the set pieces are poorly put together, the pacing is nothing but sub-standard and completely predictable, the situations looks constructed, the scenes are embarrassing to watch in all their awkwardness and the list could go on and on.Excuse me for being such a sourpuss, but it had to be said. The best thing about this trilogy is that it (hopefully) is completed.I rest my case.

As sequels (or prequels in this case) go, "Mors Elling" is a good movie.Everyone who's seen the successful movie "Elling" (2000) probably remembers that Elling was a bit... attached to his late mother (to put it mildly). "Mors Elling" is based on one of author Ingvar Ambjørnsen's books written before "Brødre i blodet" (the basis for "Elling"). It tells the story of Elling, living with his mom in downtown Oslo. She knows she won't be around for ever and in an effort to get him out in the world, and help him stand on his own two feet, she buys tickets for them both for a trip to sunny Spain!What follows is a series of mishaps as we tag along with Elling through situations he's never been in before. Riding on an airplane, on the beach surrounded with topless women, the Spanish nightlife, befriending the Norwegian woman in the neighbouring hotel-room, etc. It is at times funny but never as light-hearted as the original movie. Here there is more emphasis on the seriousness of Elling's condition, and we rarely find ourselves laughing like we did with the first movie. More melancholy, and thus less of the warm-hearted air that made the first "Elling" so special.But don't get me wrong, it's still a good little movie. Director Eva Isaksen is always great with actors, and the acting is as expected good, the story is entertaining, and it is surprisingly short. Around 75 minutes (!) and when it is all over I felt myself REALLY wanting to see the Elling-character again, now that I knew that much more about him.