Film Reviews

Jar City (Myrin)

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• Details: Iceland / 93mins (16).

Icelandic noir mightn't be high on every moviegoer's list, but if one was so inclined they'll find a lot to like about this little number, which is adapted from Arnaldur Indrioason's novel Tainted Blood. When Orn's (Atlie Rafn Sigurosson) daughter dies of a rare genetic disease (he is a carrier but has never felt the effects of the illness), Orn takes it upon himself to trace the disease through his family tree and finds out more than he wished. Running in tandem to this, detective Erlendur (Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson) investigates the seemingly random murder of a lowlife, but the discovery of a photograph of a child's grave opens up a promising lead, and the roots of the murder can be traced back to a rape 30 years ago...
Although familiar (the story is very Cold Case or CSI: Reykjavik), it's the style and performances of all involved that makes Jar City stand out. With its chilly colours, bleak landscapes and perpetually falling specks of snow, Kormakur has shot a film the Icelandic tourist board won't be too happy about; it's not all down and dirty, however, as Kormakur injects some unexpected but welcome moments of black humour into the proceedings. At times things can happen a little conveniently, which belies the complicated plotting that has gone before but, since it's sometimes hard to keep abreast of what's happening, those contrivances are saluted. Jar City could turn out to be Iceland's Chinatown.

Review by Gavin Burke