Oslo, August 31st Reviews

(Mu) Film of one character on a depressive and vital rampage, he is a loser, he is lost by everybody, he conduces in a rare bizarre way to his final step...

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but Roger Ebert really loved it, he even picked it up as one of the best movies released in 2012, so I was really eager to check it out. Basically, it is a very dark Norwegian feature which gives some really interesting and harsh insights about what must happen with drug addicts when they manage to get clean. Indeed, one of the ‘positive’ aspects of being a junkie is that the drugs give you a purpose, a meaning to your life, maybe it is all rotten but still. But what happens when it’s gone? Even though the drug addicts have become more or less healthy, there is a huge vaccum in their life and, for the main character, it seems impossible to fill this vaccum. Getting in contact with friends and relatives, seeing how they managed to live a ‘normal’ life, doesn’t help either because this way of life seems difficult to understand or even rather pointless when you have turned your back on it for 5 years or even longer. In my opinion, all this stuff was missing from ‘Trainspotting’ and that’s the reason why I always had some mixed feelings about this classic. Here, all these ideas were very well developed by the director and helped by an amazing performance given by the main actor. Unfortunately, from the moment he got to the party, I thought it was not really compelling anymore. I mean, from the moment he gets there and starts to drink, you know the guy is lost and, then, the only thing you have left is waiting for the predictable ending to show up. Still, to conclude, even though it didn’t completely convince me, it remains a very strong drama and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested by the subject.