Oslo, August 31st (2012)

Boring

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Oslo, 31. august (2011 - Joachim Trier) ****½Melancholic drama about a recovering heroin addict on day release from a rehab centre. He appears to be making progress in his recovery and seemingly wants to move on with his life. He spends the day visiting old friends, attending a job interview and traipsing around the city, although there is continual sense of a relapse around every corner.The film is an enthralling and moving character study about an individual beginning the first day of his new life or a final one of his current existence. Apparently it is a loose adaptation of Le feu follet by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, but I am not overly familiar with the book aside from knowing of Malle's adaptation.

Anders is a 34 year old recovering drug addict in a rehab clinic. He's got 2 more weeks and isn't doing well. He's given leave to go to a job interview in downtown Oslo. He visits his friends Thomas and Rebecca. He and Thomas dig into their lives. The interview turns into a disaster when he admits to his drug past and he spirals out of control. He goes to meet his sister Nina but her friend shows up. Then he starts a night of drinking and parties ending in his darken room.It's small Norwegian film. It has a little too many quiet moments. The lead lacks a certain liveliness at the start. The movie takes too long to generate any power. The directing style is too quiet. It needs energy to match his growing anger and frustration. The overlaying of all the other people's conversations dilute his experience. There is power in his story. However the movie keeps looking away from him. I'm not sold on it. Then it turns into one of those all night party movies which again I'm not sold on as part of his life. I'd think that an addict would break as soon as he starts drinking again. The whole movie lacks that destructive energy that the character seems to imply.

(Spoilers!) The story tracks one day in the life 34-year-old Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), ending on the date mentioned in the title. Anders is nearing the end of a drug detox program where he has been in attendance for several months. He has been given an evening leave to go for a job interview.We come to know a lot about Anders and his decision to end it all. On his evening leave, and before his job interview, he goes to see his old friend Thomas who is married with a child and is a professor of literature. The two sit on a park bench and have an intense conversation. It is from this scene that we see how depressed Anders is and realize that, even though Thomas clearly cares for him, there is no future for their returning to their old relationship. If an early scene of an attempted suicide does not warn us of what is on his mind, then Anders citing the quote, "If someone wants to destroy himself, society should allow him to do so," makes it pretty clear. In this conversation Anders wants Thomas to know that if he does commit suicide, then it will have been a willful decision and not simply a mistaken OD.Anders is fully committed to his depression, making statements like, "I am nothing." In his job interview for editorial assistant to a literary magazine, after holding his own intellectually he preempts the meeting before it is clear that a negative decision is forthcoming. It's almost like he is afraid that he might get the job. Ander's depression is so painfully real that I was left wondering if his depression caused his drug problem or if his drug problem caused his depression--probably a combination.In one scene Anders walks the streets of Oslo remembering, in a voice-over, his family life from the time he was growing up. This scene is particularly poignant, since we see that Anders came from a good family and was afforded financial and emotional support as a young person. There seems to be some truth in his remarking, "I'm a spoiled brat who f***** up. Nobody needs me."It's natural to root for Anders to turn the corner, but he thwarts hope at every turn. The woman he loved has moved to New York and, after several calls to her getting her answering machine and no callbacks, that hope is closed off. In a park Anders looks up at the sun coming through a tree, smiles and we think maybe an appreciation of nature will help, but I think Ander's apparent appreciation comes from his knowing that this is the last time he will have this bond with the natural world. His sister avoids an arranged meeting; his parents have had to sell their house in order to support him. So, family support has eroded. Near the end Anders sits down at the piano and plays some bars from a piano sonata. It's impressive to see that Anders Lie can actually play. He is good enough to fake being rusty. After giving a remote hope that maybe music can same him, when he encounters a difficult passage that frustrates him he abandons the piano.The film is tightly edited--there are no superfluous scenes; the story unfolds in a fluid way as we come to know and understand Anders. The beauty of the movie makes you come to see how Anders sees the world, and why he feels at a deep level that he can't go back, and nor can he go forward. After a suicide the first question anyone asks is why and usually there are no satisfactory answers, but, to its credit, this movie provides some answers in this particular case.

Beautiful and interesting to watch if tragic.Anders is a heroin addict in the last weeks of rehab--we don't know how many times he has been there before--one suspects several due to the cold reception he receives from his family. He is in his early 30s.Having been through this myself I am a pretty good judge of this movie.It is very accurate. The sister who won't see him. Her friend who describes how Ander's mother is trying to give the sister family heirlooms maybe to make up for the money they have had to spend on Anders. The sister doesn't want Anders in the family home alone--but her friend gives him the keys anyway. So real.I loved the truth in this movie. Ander's friend who quotes Proust (a nod to the French origins of the story) and then his wife chastises this pretentiousness perfectly. This friend then admits his life is not so perfect and he really wonders about it--admits he doesn't sleep with his wife--a wonderful one line antidote the typical PC version of marriages.Anders state of mind is partly caused by the depressive blahs of withdrawal but also the stripping away of artifice and pretense from the humiliations of years. The exact truth of everything comes out in this state that is the intelligence of the movie. The scene in the cafe is wonderful....especially the puerile teenage girls wanting to do all these prepackaged "exciting" things--swimming with dolphins-reading a great novel you remember parts of all your life...ad nauseum. It exhausts and irritates you listening to it.Of course I knew Anders was going to OD about 30 minutes from the end that was no surprise. The director does clever things though--you see Anders playing the piano and can't see his hands so you are dismayed to think this wonderful movie is going use that tired cinema technique of showing only the hands playing but then the camera moves very slowly and no---he really is playing it. That somehow authenticates the movie. This movie works beautifully--the initial drowning attempt then the ending at the swimming pool.Probably the best and most watchable "addiction" movie I have ever seen. Plus you get to see scenes of Oslo all of it beautifully filmed. As a non sequitur.... WWII started on Sept 1 so August 31 would have been the last day of an era? Probably a coincidence?RECOMMEND HIGHLY