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101 Reykjavik

2000, Movie, NR, 100 mins

101 Reykjavik: Review

101 REYKJAVIK
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An Icelandic slacker comedy, based on the popular novel by Nordic writer Hallgr'mur Helgason, in which the pathologically unmotivated Hlynur (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) gets dragged headlong into life's rich pageant after a one-night stand with his mother's lesbian lover. Thirty-year-old Hylnur has never left the nest, and is still living in the small apartment he's shared since childhood with his mother Berglind (Hanna Mafia Karlsdottir), an old-fashioned, dope-smoking but hardworking hippie type. Hylnur can't be bothered to attend school or hold a job — he can barely be bothered to visit the unemployment office to ensure continuation of his unemployment benefits — has no interests aside from surfing porno websites. On weekends he joins pals Throestur (Baltasar Kormakur) and Marri (Olafur Darri Olafsson) at the local bar, where they dance, pick up girls and bitch that they never meet anyone new. Hylnur actually works up the energy to sleep with Hofi (Thrudur Vilhjalmdottir), but ignores her efforts to establish a real relationship. Then the sexy, freewheeling Lola Milagros (Victoria Abril) comes into his life. A flamenco teacher and old friend of his mother's, Lola comes to visit and, over the New Year's holiday while Berglind is away visiting friends, has a drunken tryst with Hylnur. True to pattern, he resists Lola's efforts to talk about what happened, so the news Berglind breaks on her return comes as a huge shock: She and Lola are in love and plan to live together permanently. Lola soon discovers that she's pregnant, though she insists the child isn't Hylnur's. Worse still, Hofi is also pregnant and insists that her baby is. Inch by painful inch, Hylnur begins crawling out of the shell of his self-imposed isolation. Though the film — driven by a pulsing score by Blur's Damon Albarn and Einar Örn, a founding member of The Sugarcubes — has been described by some critics as "Almodovar-esque," actor-turned-director Baltasar Kormakur's sensibility is far less outrageous; his characters find themselves in absurdly complicated situations, but respond with sardonic cool rather than hot-blooded hysteria. Part angst-ridden Holden Caulfield, part unregenerate freeloader, Hylnur is a rather unappealing hero, but his plight apparently spoke to disaffected Icelandic youth: The film outgrossed GLADIATOR in its native country. The title alludes to the unfashionable Reykjavic neighborhood in which the action unfolds: "101" is the zip code. (In English and Icelandic, with English subtitles.) leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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