KatyR-55

This is the worst film I have seen in years. Just a dreadful script wasted on talented actors, and utterly unbelievable scenarios. A home-maker who makes cakes in the shape of a modern museum, an architect who designs a building so fragile it falls down in a tornado. What government rules would permit that? A restaurant with a kitchen so small it would be hard to cook an omolette in. Nothing remotely professional about it, yet we are told that the restaurant is a roaring success. So many F bombs, vomiting....what were they thinking? I honestly thought this was a disgrace. Schoolboy humour.

Daniel Auteil's film is well cast and well directed, but the narrativr stretches out the earlier part of the film and rushes too quickly through to the ending. A film has to have some tension, some mystery, but this was all left a little too late. Still, I stayed absorbed throughout, wondering where the film was heading. Knowing that it was a true story just added to the puzzlement. Was it a matter of casting? Did Daniel Auteil seem a little too urbane to be a small town lawyer? The promotion material said he was 'obsessed', but I didn't see any 'obsession'. The acting of both Daniel Auteil and Gregory Gadebois was excellent, top class, so I'd put the problem down to the script. Nevertheless it's quite a good film.

Larrain has now made two historical films about Norway and arguably this film is even better than his earlier film about World War Two, The King's Choice. With this film the director was wise to limit the back story of Quisling's political career to a few brief scenes and to focus his film directly on Quisling's time in prison. The story centres on two characters, Quisling and a young prison chaplain who has been designated to have weekly sessions with Quisling intended to provide him with some comfort before his trial. There are two additional characters, Quisling's wife who has been his ardent supporter throughout their marriage and the young prison chaplain's wife, who in private argues forcefully with her husband. The script is based on the book the prison chaplain and his wife later wrote about Quisling. Quisling is a strange person, dogmatic and unemotional, entirely focussed on justifying his support for the Nazi war machine. An interesting film. It is essentially a two hander, augmented with the occasional addition of the two wives.