Inn i Mørket (Into the darkness) is first feature film from director Thomas Wangsmo , who also wrote the manuscript. He has worked with short films up until now, and made about 20 of them, some of which have been prized.
The film starts off dramatically, when Jan collides with the young boy Nicolai, sending him into a coma. This stirs up the two little neighboring families. Jan hasn't told the entire story; that he attended the mobile phone to shut it off just just before the crash.
It's easy to see that the director comes from short film. The story is told in the same way, and is very low budget, though all the actors, except the kids, are well known, and is playing their roles very well. The problem here lies in the manuscript. We understand what the story is all about, but not even the best actors or the best direction can help the story here.
Well, nothing wrong about the story. It's very real, truthful and probably just as a story like this would have happen. The problem is that the story would have been very strong as a shot film, and way too slow to be a feature.
The story is slow, and the, music a bit too much. Pity, because Thorbjørn Harr (Jan), Fritjov Såheim (Svein) and their two wives Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Laily Goody are all making good performances.Also the smaller parts and cameos are played by great actors, doing the best.Still - the story hasn't got the drive it deserves.
On the other hand, most of the handwork here is good. We don't get to see the real accident, due to the budget, but this gives the story away, you could say. If you like a thought-dwelling film, which gives a lot of room for thought, and you also like the excitement of what will happen along the way here, you'll be satisfied, but for me I'm afraid, wasn't feeling too satisfied after expectations.
There's been so many great Norwegian films for the latter 10 years, so any film which isn't good or at least above average, are so rare that you have to get a bit disappointed by a story like this, which could have been so exciting, but isn't. No doubt we'll see better things from Thomas Wangsmo later on. He's a clear talent in directing, but a little help with manuscript here, would fulfill this film.
