The Mountain (Fjallið)
I first saw Björn Hlynur Haraldsson in Lamb, that beautifully bewildering and high-key cooked Icelandic film from a couple years back, and developed a little crush. As the dropkick brother to Noomi Rapace’s husband (and secret illicit lover of Noomi Rapace), Haraldsson brought a grounding, human element to a film dripping with creepy folklore and religious subtext. I’d jump at the chance to see him out there on a mountain again, all tall and bearded and Icelandic, and it just so happened that he’d be doing exactly that in The Mountain, a film from Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir brought to us courtesy of the Hurtigruten Scandinavian Film Festival. What’s more, he’d be joined by Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, the daughter of the Queen of Iceland (Björk). I was surely in for a new Scandi classic…or so I’d hoped.
Haraldsson plays Atli, an electrician and former musician (a trait he curiously shares with Haraldsson’s Lamb character) who has just been asked (told) by his boss to work over the weekend in order to get a job done for a client. This disappoints his wife María (Sólveig Guðmundsdóttir), an astronomer who was keen on getting out to the highlands to photograph a comet she reckons she’s discovered. Further adding to María’s disappointment is the fact that her muso daughter Anna (or rather Björk’s daughter, Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney) has a gig that night and also forgot about the trip.
No matter, says Mum with only the slightest trace of bitterness. She decides to go on her comet snapping adventure alone and bids her family adieu. And while I’m sure she doesn’t do it out of spite, she goes ahead and accidentally dies while out there in inclement weather, high altitude and poor phone service. Atli and Anna get the news when María doesn’t come home for dinner the following night, and their lives and relationship with each other are promptly thrown into disarray.
Shot on location in a town outside of Reykjavík, The Mountain is Iceland’s first officially vetted sustainable production and has received Green Film Sustainability certification for its efforts. It is writer and director Ásthildur Kjartansdóttir’s third feature and you can feel the ambition underneath, even if it doesn’t really culminate in as much meaning as was perhaps intended. Haraldsson and Bjarkardóttir Barney are really good as Atli and Anna, a father-daughter duo trying to navigate a dynamic that was meant to be a trio rather than a duo. The latter’s live gig scenes in particular are the most engaging scenes of the film, her voice resonating just like her real life mother’s and transporting us somewhere more spiritual for a few minutes.
The problem with The Mountain is that it turns out that it takes more than hot Icelandic men and talented pop progeny to make a film interesting or impactful, no matter how solid their performances and how misty their surrounds are. The film is touted as an “emotional drama [where] the cosmos and a road trip to the Icelandic highlands offers comfort to a family whose life is upended by a twist of fate.” While The Mountain does technically follow that course, it doesn’t use its 90 minutes efficiently enough to take us on the kind of journey that its director envisions.
The most frustrating illustration of this misuse of time is that, when the film finally starts to pick up as Atli and Anna return to the mountain and attempt to capture proof of María’s comet, there are only fifteen or so minutes left before the film ends. It’s disappointing to say the least, especially when there are stronger examples out there of Scandi films with similar setups that pack more emotional weight and are more adventurous in tone.
I’m reminded specifically of Riders of Justice (which I reviewed here), a Mads Mikkelsen/Anders Thomas Jensen joint that pulls off the exact same premise (mum dies in a tragic accident, leaving dad and daughter lost and at odds) with much more deftness and impact. Granted, Anders Thomas Jensen is a more experienced writer and director, but a touch of black comedy never goes astray in a Scandi drama and probably would’ve helped the emotional beats of The Mountain hit harder.
The Mountain is a competently made, by-the-numbers family drama about loss and those peaks that pop up in life that seem insurmountable. It did leave me a little hollow, but perhaps it’s because I’d rewatched Wall-E the night before and had expended all my emotions.
Verdict
☆☆☆
The Mountain is showing at Luna Leederville, Luna SX and Palace Raine Square for the Hurtigruten Scandinavian Film Festival from July 29 - Aug 13.
