Niceland (Population. 1.000.002)

If you feel like getting a bit sad, and are ready for a slow paced movie, than niceland is a very good option for you. The story of the mentally retarded boy and his encounter with a man who is frustrated at the world is rather an interesting one. As you watch the two helping out each other, you realize that people can learn something from each other regardless of their intelligence or age. Even though there is not much action involved and it gets a bit too slow sometimes, it is worth to watch it. The actors in it are quite astonishing, almost making you feel like they have been through the characters lives themselves. The director should also be commended for the choice of actors. There weren't many interesting shots and none of the technical stuff really caught my attention. However, the story is a very good one and includes a great deal of criticism for the people who are locked up in their own small worlds.

I saw this film by a total accident and I'm happy to have seen it. The film isn't perfect but its very good and has a nice kind of morale. Niceland is basically about a young man (or an old boy) Jet living a joyful life working at a factory with his girlfriend who he's deeply in love with and vice versa. But shortly after they decide to get married and live together happily ever after her cat, who she has a weird affection for, dies. The girlfriend falls into depression which could (strangely enough) lead to her death and the only way to give her a purpose to live and save her is to tell her the meaning of life. So Jet goes on a journey to discover the meaning of life and thats when he meets Max, a strange man living in a junkyard who claims to know the answer...

Niceland is a pretty surreal film and I wouldn't necessarily call it Icelandic or even British but instead if anything I would probably call it "Nicelandic" especially because I have no idea where its supposed to happen and it felt like a new kind of style. To begin with the film was very fun and entertaining but after a while it got kinda slow but before the film reached its climax it went up hill again and I noticed it had a good point and was trying to say something (although I don't want to reveal what). Gary Lewis and Martin Compston are both very good as are the other actors. Out of ten I would give it a rating somewhere between 7.3 to 7.7 although I can't really imagine what kind of feedback it will get.

Niceland is the most recent film from Iceland's master filmmaker, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and it is a brilliant piece of work. In 90 minutes he manages to capture the emotional essence of life as it is lived and life as it should be lived, both, making us feel happy, amused, sad, hopeful, joyful. The poignancy of the story is so finely tuned and so intelligently crafted that it would be difficult to think of another current film (this is from 2004) that does what this one does.

Playing like an allegory, Niceland's cast is comprised of Scottish and Icelandic actors; the leads are, in fact, Scottish and a good number of the supporting actors are Icelandic. What's both amusing and irritating is that Fridriksson has English subtitles when everyone speaks English! The viewer gets the feeling that this was done to spoof foreign films that require subtitles; another reason, however, is to slightly jar the viewer--i.e., is this a foreign film or isn't it? If it is, where is the setting? There's only a single tiny hint that this may be set in Iceland which is when one TV is playing, the viewer hears people speaking in a language that is definitely not English. But all other times, English is spoken--by the characters and by whoever's on the TV (TV figures quite a bit in the film).

Jed and Chloe, young 20-somethings, work side by side in a factory and are somewhat intellectually challenged--Chloe, for example, feels that the purpose of her life is her cat Catey. But it is just this not-quite-normalcy of these two leads that gives this film its tremendous poignancy. We discover as well that Jed's parents have some problems in their marriage--the father sells TVs for a living--and also that Jed ultimately becomes convinced that he must obtain the purpose of life--of life for both him and Chloe together--from a man named Max who is interviewed on TV and claims to know the purpose of life--although he won't just come right out and say it.

Jed goes to find Max and Max, as it turns out, is a much more complex character than he initially appears to be. The very well crafted interactions of these three characters--Max, Chloe, and Jed--and some of the other characters who surround or support them--Jed's parents, his friend Alex, Chloe's mother--are all interwoven so delicately and so thoughtfully that to miss this film would be a real crime.

The allegorical nature of this film, and its two young leads, recalls a somewhat similar American film, Pleasantville. Although the latter is without question a different film, there is a kind of eerie similarity in that we definitely feel that we are in some kind of familiar yet surreal alternate universe kind of "anytown", where people are subtly exaggerated versions of the archetypal/stereotypical folks we've met before in other films, novels, plays, or maybe even in real life. This allegorical/surreal haze that delicately colors the proceedings lends the film a unique quality that one would, I think, be hard put to find in many other films. Aside from Pleasantville, nothing else comes immediately to mind.

This is a terrific comedy-drama with subtle elements of fantasy and surrealism that absolutely demands a wider audience. I managed to see this in April 2005 in New York City at a film festival of Scandinavian film (one of the great things about being in NY City is the astounding diversity of available films).

Very highly recommended; one of the best films of 2004, no question.

It is very pretty movie with the most beautiful proposal scene I've ever seen. The storyline, based on an effort of a young boy to find the answer on his pivotal question - which is "what's the purpose of life" - is not the most important thing in the movie. It was so good idea to make a movie about this kind of people - they are like beautiful lilies in the garden of potatoes. It is so homely and refreshing to watch their spotless minds and their straight thinking. Even though, I think it would be possible to make a better movie with all these components. I don't miss the movements and actions here at all, it would be different world then, but I think they are some scenes on the very border of what the cliché is, sometimes the border is even slightly crossed, to my opinion. They are some blind moments as well, and finally, one or too minor plot lines added into the story would be nice spice anyway, with the same slow development maintained. But it is definitely worth to see it.