PARK CITY -- A filmmaker enters Coen brothers territory at his own risk. Baltasar Kormakur, the Icelandic filmmaker whose "101 Reykjavik" (2000) was a festival circuit favorite, crosses that border in "A Little Trip to Heaven", a film with "Fargo" on its mind. Few filmmakers can get that right mix of mordant, dark humor and criminally prone characters behaving badly. Come to think of it, even the Coens don't always manage the trick. Kormakur, who directed and co-wrote the script with Edward Martin Weinman, falls short in the story department and even shorter in evoking the droll, twisted humor that must carry the day.
Kormakur has populated the marquee for his English-language film with known American actors in Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Peter Coyote, but his film, which screened in Premieres, is unlikely to achieve more than an art house release domestically. Greater opportunities may lie in TV and home video.
The story is borrowed from the noir world of James M. Cain where sly, conniving characters dwell on both sides of a fraudulent insurance claim. Whitaker's Holt -- sporting an Irish accent for no apparent reason other than the actor has never done one before -- is introduced as an insurance claims adjuster who would cheat a starving widow out of every dime he can. He does at least frown as he does so.
When a $1 million life insurance policy comes due for collection, his demanding boss Frank (Coyote) immediately dispatches Holt. He even drags Holt from the scene of a bus crash so he can drive for several hours into the hinterlands, where police sleep in their car at the scene, waiting for this star insurance investigator. Nonsensical plot points like this place the story directly in the realm of fiction. How, pray tell, did the insurance company even know about the accident when no one has filed a claim?
Anyway, audiences already know the "accident" was in fact cold-blooded murder, performed in such a way that the body would be unrecognizable but all clues would point to the victim being a small-time scam artist whose sister, Isold (Stiles), is the sole beneficiary. The person seen performing the murder is her unstable husband, Fred (Jeremy Renner). Kormakur doesn't give viewers any moral high ground here. Holt is a creep, who launches his investigation by peeping at Isold through her bathroom window. Fred has blackness at his very core, and it's hard to feel sorry for Isold, who sticks with Fred thus endangering a son.
The family lives in a house that looks abandoned and even burned. Indeed, the entire landscape -- with Iceland subbing for northern Minnesota -- feels desolate and discarded, a vast, frigid wasteland of lonely roads running past tall polls and mean dwellings, all shot in a half-light that drains color from the barren land.
Kormakur never gains his footing in the pseudo-America as the tone is never quite right, tension never builds, dialogue feels unnatural and characters are underdeveloped. Stiles does a halfway decent job of creating a woman living on the edge of existence, but other performances are rote, and Whitaker's is a puzzle. What exactly is he playing as he slouches through these empty spaces?
Tech credits are solid, especially visually and aurally, in this film co-produced by Hollywood veteran Sigurjon Sighvatsson.
A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN
Palomar Pictures/Blueeyes Prods./Pink Prods.
Credits:
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Screenwriters: Baltasar Kormakur, Edward Martin Weinman
Producers: Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Baltasar Kormakur
Executive producers: Jon Asgeir Johannesson, Lilja Palmadottir
Director of photography: Ottar Gudnason
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Mugison
Costume designer: Helga I. Stefansdottir
Editors: Virginia Katz, Richard Pearson
Cast:
Holt: Forest Whitaker
Isold: Julia Styles
Fred: Jeremy Renner
Frank: Peter Coyote
William: Philip Jackson
Martha: Anne Reid
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
Kormakur has populated the marquee for his English-language film with known American actors in Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Peter Coyote, but his film, which screened in Premieres, is unlikely to achieve more than an art house release domestically. Greater opportunities may lie in TV and home video.
The story is borrowed from the noir world of James M. Cain where sly, conniving characters dwell on both sides of a fraudulent insurance claim. Whitaker's Holt -- sporting an Irish accent for no apparent reason other than the actor has never done one before -- is introduced as an insurance claims adjuster who would cheat a starving widow out of every dime he can. He does at least frown as he does so.
When a $1 million life insurance policy comes due for collection, his demanding boss Frank (Coyote) immediately dispatches Holt. He even drags Holt from the scene of a bus crash so he can drive for several hours into the hinterlands, where police sleep in their car at the scene, waiting for this star insurance investigator. Nonsensical plot points like this place the story directly in the realm of fiction. How, pray tell, did the insurance company even know about the accident when no one has filed a claim?
Anyway, audiences already know the "accident" was in fact cold-blooded murder, performed in such a way that the body would be unrecognizable but all clues would point to the victim being a small-time scam artist whose sister, Isold (Stiles), is the sole beneficiary. The person seen performing the murder is her unstable husband, Fred (Jeremy Renner). Kormakur doesn't give viewers any moral high ground here. Holt is a creep, who launches his investigation by peeping at Isold through her bathroom window. Fred has blackness at his very core, and it's hard to feel sorry for Isold, who sticks with Fred thus endangering a son.
The family lives in a house that looks abandoned and even burned. Indeed, the entire landscape -- with Iceland subbing for northern Minnesota -- feels desolate and discarded, a vast, frigid wasteland of lonely roads running past tall polls and mean dwellings, all shot in a half-light that drains color from the barren land.
Kormakur never gains his footing in the pseudo-America as the tone is never quite right, tension never builds, dialogue feels unnatural and characters are underdeveloped. Stiles does a halfway decent job of creating a woman living on the edge of existence, but other performances are rote, and Whitaker's is a puzzle. What exactly is he playing as he slouches through these empty spaces?
Tech credits are solid, especially visually and aurally, in this film co-produced by Hollywood veteran Sigurjon Sighvatsson.
A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN
Palomar Pictures/Blueeyes Prods./Pink Prods.
Credits:
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Screenwriters: Baltasar Kormakur, Edward Martin Weinman
Producers: Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Baltasar Kormakur
Executive producers: Jon Asgeir Johannesson, Lilja Palmadottir
Director of photography: Ottar Gudnason
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Mugison
Costume designer: Helga I. Stefansdottir
Editors: Virginia Katz, Richard Pearson
Cast:
Holt: Forest Whitaker
Isold: Julia Styles
Fred: Jeremy Renner
Frank: Peter Coyote
William: Philip Jackson
Martha: Anne Reid
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 90 minutes...
- 1/31/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- A filmmaker enters Coen brothers territory at his own risk. Baltasar Kormakur, the Icelandic filmmaker whose "101 Reykjavik" (2000) was a festival circuit favorite, crosses that border in "A Little Trip to Heaven", a film with "Fargo" on its mind. Few filmmakers can get that right mix of mordant, dark humor and criminally prone characters behaving badly. Come to think of it, even the Coens don't always manage the trick.
Kormakur, who directed and co-wrote the script with Edward Martin Weinman, falls short in the story department and even shorter in evoking the droll, twisted humor that must carry the day.
Kormakur has populated the marquee for his English-language film with known American actors in Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Peter Coyote, but his film is unlikely to achive more than an art-house release domestically. Greater opportunities may lie in TV and home video.
The basic story is borrowed from the noir world of James M. Cain where sly, conniving characters dwell on both sides of a fraudulent insurance claim. Whitaker's Holt -- sporting an Irish accent for no apparently reason other than the actor has never done one before -- is introduced as an insurance claims adjustor who would cheat a starving widow out of every dime he can. He does at least frown as he does so.
When a $1 million life insurance policy comes due for collection, his demanding boss Frank (Coyote) immediately dispatches Holt. He even drags Holt from the scene of a bus wreck so he can drive for several hours into the hinterlands, where police sleep in their car at the scene, waiting for this star insurance investigator. Nonsensical plot points such as this place the story directly in the realm of fiction. How, pray tell, did the insurance company even know about the accident when no one has filed a claim?
Anyway, audiences already know the "accident" was in fact cold-blooded murder, performed in such a way that the body would be unrecognizable but all clues would point to the victim being a small-time scam artist whose sister, Isold (Stiles), is the sole beneficiary. The person seen performing the murder is her unstable husband Fred (Jeremy Renner).
Kormakur doesn't give viewers any moral high ground here. Holt is a creep, who launches his investigation by peeping at Isold through her bathroom window. Fred has blackness at his very core, and it's hard to feel sorry for Isold who sticks with Fred thus endangering a son.
The family lives in a house that looks abandoned and even burned. Indeed, the entire landscape -- with Iceland subbing for northern Minnesota -- feels desolate and discarded, a vast, frigid wasteland of lonely roads running past tall polls and mean dwellings, all shot in a half-light that drains color from the barren land.
Kormakur never gains his footing in the pseudo-America as the tone is never quite right, tension never builds, dialogue feels unnatural and characters are underdeveloped. Stiles does a halfway decent job of creating a woman living on the edge of existence, but other performances are rote and Whitakers' is a puzzle. What exactly is he playing as he slouches through these empty spaces?
Tech credits are solid, especially visually and aurally, in this film co-produced by Hollywood veteran Sigurjon Sighvatsson.
A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN
Palomar Pictures/Blueeyes Prods./Pink Prods.
Credits:
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Writers: Baltasar Kormakur, Edward, Martin Weinman
Producers: Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Baltasar Kormakur
Executive producers: Jon Asgeir Johannesson, Lilja Palmadottir
Director of photography: Ottar Gudnason
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Mugison
Costumes: Helga I. Stefansdottir
Editors: Virginia Katz,
Richard Pearson
Cast:
Holt: Forest Whitaker
Isold: Julia Styles
Fred: Jeremy Renner
Frank: Peter Coyote
William: Philip Jackson
Martha: Anne Reid
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Kormakur, who directed and co-wrote the script with Edward Martin Weinman, falls short in the story department and even shorter in evoking the droll, twisted humor that must carry the day.
Kormakur has populated the marquee for his English-language film with known American actors in Forest Whitaker, Julia Stiles and Peter Coyote, but his film is unlikely to achive more than an art-house release domestically. Greater opportunities may lie in TV and home video.
The basic story is borrowed from the noir world of James M. Cain where sly, conniving characters dwell on both sides of a fraudulent insurance claim. Whitaker's Holt -- sporting an Irish accent for no apparently reason other than the actor has never done one before -- is introduced as an insurance claims adjustor who would cheat a starving widow out of every dime he can. He does at least frown as he does so.
When a $1 million life insurance policy comes due for collection, his demanding boss Frank (Coyote) immediately dispatches Holt. He even drags Holt from the scene of a bus wreck so he can drive for several hours into the hinterlands, where police sleep in their car at the scene, waiting for this star insurance investigator. Nonsensical plot points such as this place the story directly in the realm of fiction. How, pray tell, did the insurance company even know about the accident when no one has filed a claim?
Anyway, audiences already know the "accident" was in fact cold-blooded murder, performed in such a way that the body would be unrecognizable but all clues would point to the victim being a small-time scam artist whose sister, Isold (Stiles), is the sole beneficiary. The person seen performing the murder is her unstable husband Fred (Jeremy Renner).
Kormakur doesn't give viewers any moral high ground here. Holt is a creep, who launches his investigation by peeping at Isold through her bathroom window. Fred has blackness at his very core, and it's hard to feel sorry for Isold who sticks with Fred thus endangering a son.
The family lives in a house that looks abandoned and even burned. Indeed, the entire landscape -- with Iceland subbing for northern Minnesota -- feels desolate and discarded, a vast, frigid wasteland of lonely roads running past tall polls and mean dwellings, all shot in a half-light that drains color from the barren land.
Kormakur never gains his footing in the pseudo-America as the tone is never quite right, tension never builds, dialogue feels unnatural and characters are underdeveloped. Stiles does a halfway decent job of creating a woman living on the edge of existence, but other performances are rote and Whitakers' is a puzzle. What exactly is he playing as he slouches through these empty spaces?
Tech credits are solid, especially visually and aurally, in this film co-produced by Hollywood veteran Sigurjon Sighvatsson.
A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN
Palomar Pictures/Blueeyes Prods./Pink Prods.
Credits:
Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Writers: Baltasar Kormakur, Edward, Martin Weinman
Producers: Sigurjon Sighvatsson, Baltasar Kormakur
Executive producers: Jon Asgeir Johannesson, Lilja Palmadottir
Director of photography: Ottar Gudnason
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Mugison
Costumes: Helga I. Stefansdottir
Editors: Virginia Katz,
Richard Pearson
Cast:
Holt: Forest Whitaker
Isold: Julia Styles
Fred: Jeremy Renner
Frank: Peter Coyote
William: Philip Jackson
Martha: Anne Reid
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/30/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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