Greetings again from the darkness. Dysfunctional families are frequently at the center of movies – often used for comedic effect. But this latest family drama from writer-director Joachim Trier (THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, 2021) is something different. It’s something much more powerful. Trier delivers a film of characters struggling with the real effects of the tangled web of emotions that occur when family dynamics take the inevitable twists and turns.
An incredible two-segment opening prepares us for what’s coming. We see a very cool house that’s at the center of a 6th grade essay written as if the girl were the house – seeing and feeling all that happens within the walls. This bumps against a segment where Nora (Renate Reinsve, who was superb in Trier’s THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD) is a lead actress experiencing extreme stage anxiety just prior to the curtain rise of her stage performance in Chekov’s “The Seagull”. The two scenes may appear unrelated, but in Trier’s film, everything ties together to create the whole of human experience.
Nora and her married sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, A BEAUTIFUL LIFE, 2023), an historian, are close to each other and to differing degrees estranged from their filmmaker father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgard, “Chernobyl”) who shows up for the funeral of his ex-wife, the girls’ mother. An awkward reunion is made worse when Gustav tells Nora that he wrote a script for her. She wants nothing to do with him or the script. It’s hard to tell if Gustav is offering the role as a peace offering to his daughter, or if he is taking advantage of her success on stage to secure financing for the film … it’s been 15 years since his last.
I disclose all of that to give you some idea of the intricacies involved in these relationships. Things only get more complicated when Gustav casts a popular American actor, Rachel Kemp (the always amazing Elle Fanning) in the role meant for Nora … in a film about Gustav’s mother, his daughter, and his grandson … and the family house. That house is the centerpiece to much of what has occurred and what occurs as the father tries to re-connect with his daughters. The eavesdropping through the stove is a nice touch that exemplifies the communication problems for the family members.
As good as Ms. Fanning and Ms. Lilleaas are, there are a handful of scenes between Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard that are among the most resonant scenes of the year. And the film itself (replete with nods to Lasse Hallstrom and Ingmar Bergman) is also one of the best of the year. Rarely does a family drama perfectly capture the entanglement of emotions, memories, and art. This one succeeds through directing, writing, acting, and cinematography (Kasper Tuxen).
Movie Reviews from the Dark 