Movie Review - 'Reprise'
Friday, June 13, 2008 at 12:00AM RepriseStarring Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Hoiner and Viktoria Winge
Directed by Joachim Trier
Rated R
Reprise is full of disillusionment, the
sort of thing everyone goes through hopefully sooner than later. In the
film, lifelong friends Philip and Erik (Anders
Danielsen Lie and
Espen Klouman-Høiner)
have both written manuscripts. Philip sells his and Erik does not, and while
that might seem like a fork in the road for these characters, we learn over
the course of their story that it's actually the incident that brings them
closer together thematically.
After Philip's initial success, the walls start closing in around him. He suffers a breakdown, is admitted to the hospital, and for some months after his release struggles to gain control of who he is and what he's doing. Erik, on the other hand, a good-looking, seemingly confident young man for whom things come easily, and yet it is obvious that he's wrestling with many of the same demons his friend is, albeit under a different exterior.
Their disillusionment is shared: Both feel as though they've outgrown their group of friends, both can't escape the fear that they're with the wrong women, both dread writing and not being able to write, and both wonder what the answer is.
That's a rather reductive view of Reprise, which is intelligent and artistic and probing and is, by itself, as much about how a complex story like this is told as it is about the story itself. Director and co-writer Joachim Trier delivers a daring, remarkable debut film that swept the major film categories in its native Norway last year. Its use of narration (always tricky), supporting characters (ditto), and silence illustrates that Trier not only knows what he's doing but knows very well the movie he's making.
The performances by Lie and Klouman-Høinerare natural and compelling, and the same goes for Viktoria Winge as the tormented lover caught in the middle of Peter's internal struggle. It would be understandable if, given the consequences of the story, those performances were less nuanced and more overt. To their credit, the actors make the same inquiries the characters do, allowing us to go on the journeys with them.
Just as important, Reprise never pulls the characters one way over another, often asking through its narration what would happen to these characters if one road was chosen over another.
It's a rare film that knows when to answer questions, when to realize that there's more than one answer, and when even the right answers can be terribly unfulfilling.
Reader Comments