The Middle Man

I thought this was a Canadian movie since it has at least three Canadian actors, including the late, great Kenneth Welsh, but then there's a Sheriff and American flags, so evidently we're in the US, but then the credits have separate listings for crews in Germany, Denmark and Norway - it's baffling that this deliberately claustrophobic movie that all takes place in one small American town was shot in three European countries. The characterizations feel just as displaced, the relationships between characters are more muddled than complex, and the protagonist's arc isn't believable. It starts out engaging but I was disappointed.

Hagen is a decent actor, but what does Hamer want to convey with this movie? So many things didn't make sense to me. Like, why is the story set in a Rust Belt town, in the middle of nowhere in the US, when it's not even shot in the US, but Canada, and the plot is loosely based on a Norwegian book called "Sluk?" There are plenty of depressing rusty old industrial towns in Scandinavia Hamer could use as a more efficient backdrop to this story. This backdrop would even better match the acting style of the Scandinavian actors, Nordic noir. All of them looked out of sorts in this Rust Belt town. I was not convinced the Scandinavian actors were American and/or had any real connection to the town, even though Hamer threw in a few family members and friends for the connection to seem real. Their accents were also all over the place, even though they tried to pull off an Appalachian dialect. Hamer could have closed this gap if he'd chosen a location closer to home. Nope. The movie fell flat for me and in the end I didn't care what happened to any of the characters. Sad. I really wanted to love this movie.

All the way through you're waiting for it to be interesting. It never is. You keep wanting the 'quirkiness' to pay off. It never does. The storyline is both odd and predictable. It's like the filmmaker is trying to prove they're an 'artist' by making everything about the film awkward. Not so awkward that it would be notable, just awkward enough to try to be an 'art house' movie for people who hate art house movies.

The cinematography is excellent. The actors are excellent actors. The production design is impressive, if a bit on the nose at times. But the script and direction are just completely and utterly dull, directionless, and trying too hard to be cool.

It's the cinematic equivalent of one of those dudes at parties who quotes Camus and Satre but doesn't have anything to say for himself.

Indulgent. Irritating. Smiling smugly at you when you finally admit you just don't get it. Even though there is quite genuinely nothing to 'get' about this film.

For those who have enjoyed Bent Hamer's earlier films, and his eccentric, odd and unconventional style, often located in a very provencial universe, The Middle Man seems to hit some new manner. However, it stumbles, and it's basically because Hamer, and perhaps the producers, possibly to better hit the American market, have located this original Norwegian novel based plot to a town in the US Rustbelt, somewhat similar to how Lasse Hallström, who in the early and best part of his career as a director with success played his stories out in genuin Swedish local town environments, Hamer has earlier made his art in even more narrow settings, and this has become a very basic value for his ingenuety. So, when he tries to be more internaionally 'public friendly', and even more so when he simultaneously casts highly regular Scandinavian actors, who don't fit the location with either accent or behaviour, it only becomes weird, pretenciously funny, and not so much in the original Hamer sense, but as a stumble in the wrong direction. Another Norwegian environment would be just perfect.

I was a bit skeptic to the film due to the "bad" score, but I liked the cast and was willing to give it a try. I am glad I did. This is one of those good films, with depth and very good acting. The scandinavian actors struggle some with sounding canadian/american, but it's not hurting the film.

I guess the negative reviews are from folks wanting something else, this is just a good movie.