Sunday, June 29, 2008

by Brian

Out of Norway comes one of the best films to hit these shores all year, Joachim Trier’s debut film Reprise. Along with co-writer Eskil Vogt, Trier crafts an engaging, rapid fire yet sustained story of two young men who at their core merely want to write, even with the baggage it may ensue. Already an extensive award winner in Europe, the picture’s caliber is clear early in the picture. Reprise is initially edited to appear like oh so many first features, showing a range of jump cuts and style, yet, the substance is never lost.

Anders Danielsen Lie is Phillip, a newly renowned author who has gone through months of therapy due to his psychosis, triggered from an array of things, notably his girlfriend Kari, the impressive Viktoria Winge. Lars (Christian Rubeck) takes Phillip home and the two continue their friendship, now tinged with awkwardness, jealousy and trepidation. While Reprise is unquestionably a picture about art and suffering bringing out the worst in a person even as it stimulates one’s creative flow, the movie speaks even louder to the restraints young men put on their friendships. Men, at least most, behave drastically different based on who they are around at the time. What a person may find to be a despicable saying by a given person can be entirely ignored or defended if an old pal were to have said it. 

As Phillip and Lars try to move on in life, they each fall back on such past behaviors, delaying their hopes by enveloping life in a glaze of comfort. Trier and Vogt execute the pair’s journey with a precise blend of humor, romance, melodrama and even fear. Equally impressive is Trier’s work with Jakob Ihre, whose camerawork sprints in the early reels, where it seemingly yanks the  manner of New Wave cinema and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s recent films before morphing into a far more intimate state in its latter half. The gradual tone shift is aided by the picture’s flashbacks, all of which are perfect in length and information, propelling the emotional core forward.

Reprise, however, would not be half the movie it stands as without Lie and Rubeck’s acting. Lie’s Phillip is intelligent, troubled and anxious and could easily be taken one notch further into eccentric. Lie refrains from doing the simpler task, instead forging a character that feels like a frightened animal in his emotions, slightly fragile but instilled with a deep sense to turn on you at any given time. Rubeck has the less showy role, so likely the tougher one, that of the ordinary day to day man in his mid-20s. Lars is the everyman, a could be talent or just a dreamer, the decent enough boyfriend. He makes some solid jokes but is not the standout in a crowd. Lars is almost boring but his likability allows the audience to forgive his clear flaws initially. Reprise is at its finest when plugging these two actors into a room and making them ask how did it come to this. Why are they in their current states and where is your best friend when you really need him?