After the opening scene of the movie, I thought this was going to be a niner (9/10) movie! Very interesting situation, unusual place, maybe the scenery was going to be great, and the love story was going to be very original. A black Norwegian, a fishery in the kings of oil of Europe, a gorgeous young polish gay worker, this was going to make a sparkling mix.
Well, then, first, I felt uncomfortable with the use of English as the main language. In some parts, they speak English between Polish workers. Then there was not much scenery, not much Norwegian cultural stuffs, nor polish. For the journey in the northern kingdom, one will have to watch something else.
Then there's the union story, and the conflict wasn't really developed. I do know that Norway isn't in the EU, it's possible that work regulation might be weird, but that contract story was not depicted well enough to get us involved. I even felt it very fake. Such as workers applauding each other at the union meeting, which is so American. Is Norway and Poland so far from European social behavior ? This is not at all my first Nordic movie, I traveled several times up there, and I'm sure there's something wrong.
A 5 minutes scene with a punk grandma did not unlighted much the very flat plot.
I started to check my watch after 45mn.
There's the love story. If there was something great left in the movie, it should be the love story, so I expected big drama, sensual first encounter, first kiss, forbidden love heat, and great ending and coming out at the face of the polish workers known to be superconservative roman Catholics.... There's a conflict, but they just forgot to play it angry. So, big things expected... that you'll never get. Even a good music or play list choice to support it, is missing.
I didn't see any depth in the characters. Worse, I felt
Hubert Milkowski (Robert) uncomfortable acting gay. No chemistry between the two. No tenderness. Even the first kiss is extremely fake, they barely touch lips ! If we had to compare with Clark Gable kissing Vivien Leigh in
Autant en emporte le vent (1939), or Ashton Sanders kissing Jharrel Jerome in
Moonlight - L'histoire d'une vie (2016), this movie should be rated 1.
It's well known that young boys wait a long time before doing serious things (!?). Well, when they finally (finally!) are going to have sex, they fake a French kiss, and it's very badly simulated. They even keep distance between their chests. And, not much more sensual to see, the love scene is cut by Robert laying down in the grass looking at the sky ! It could be to pass the Polish film censorship, if it's ever screened over there. Even in a Japanese gay themed movie, where censorship is way stricter, there's much more warmth.
There's also a very fake scene when he dives into the sea and plays like it's freezing. But this is summer : at the beginning of the movie, in the car, it's 5pm on his cell phone, and it's daylight, and, it's night at night, so they are not up north on the Arctic, it's the North Sea, and it is not that cold at all.
What's the point of the movie? Foreign workers in Norway? Homophobic Polish? Love separated by two cultures? It's only 88 minutes long. The moviemakers did not make a choice, and neither matter is well-developed.
The end credit says dedicated for those who fight for the right to love, but I didn't see such fight in this story. Parents are finaly somewhat okay, I mean compared to my own experience. The movie skipped truly homophobic stuffs. Not to hurt ? If you're not aware that the Polish government is superconservative about gay rights along with the Polish church, you just don't get what this movie is about.
And where's the end ? Right after watching this film, because of this end, I was ready to rate it 2. It's a french arthouse movie ending. You're aware.
