Oslo August 31st review

An intelligent and resonant work from Norwegian director Joachim Trier, a movie that yields up its meanings and implications slowly. It is loosely based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's 1931 novel Le Feu Follet, filmed before by Louis Malle. This is one day in the life of Anders, played by Anders Danielsen Lie; he is a thirtysomething heroin addict in a rehab centre outside Oslo. He appears to have made progress and has just been permitted an evening outside the unit followed by a whole day on his own in the city. But the film begins with a grim revelation about Anders's state of mind: is this the first day of the rest of his life? Or are these his final 24 hours; is he a dead man walking? Danielsen Lie gives an excellent performance as Anders: resentful, self-questioning, hopeful, vulnerable and angry. There is one outstanding scene in which one friend, a former hedonist, now a placid academic and married man, confesses his desperate boredom with life. Is there a way in which Anders can persuade himself that this boredom is preferable to his own state? A very rewarding and worthwhile film.

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