original title: Den brysomme mannen

Rating: 9/10

Imagine a world where all day to day problems have been ironed out, relationships are simple, jobs are secure, bosses are nice, cities are clean, poverty is nonexistent. How happy would a person be in such a world? Forty year old Andreas finds himself in a city where everything has been laid out for him; a seemingly perfect life. But beneath the perfection and the facade of smiles, something is terribly wrong. He cannot smell, cannot taste and relationships have no soul.

This brilliant little Norwegian fable calls to mind Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker and like the acclaimed film, belongs to both the drama and horror genres. It asks questions about the nature of our postmodern consumerist culture and our obsession with appearances. Beautifully filmed and exquisitely scored, this is a film that belongs up there amongst the ranks of Micheal Haneke’s and Gus Van Sant’s best. It is not unlikely that mainstream audiences will be put off by it’s thematic ambiguity but this is a deeply poignant film that employs the best of European sensibilities.

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Rating: 5/10

Marcos Siega’s Chaos Theory starring Ryan Reynolds, Stuart Townsend, Emily Mortimer, and Sarah Chalke tells the story of Frank Allen (Reynolds) who makes lists on a daily basis to keep everything he does on a pre-planned schedule. Every decision he makes is done after deliberately making lists of the pros and cons of the choices he has to choose from. The story deals with the consequences of not being able to follow the list’s schedule and the repurcussions that Frank and his wife Susan (Mortimer) suffers because of that.

The premise is too far-fetched, and the characters come across as being artificial and forced. The film is well paced and there are some genuinely funny scenes. Ryan Reynolds and Emily Mortimer are engaging in an otherwise average movie.

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