Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.12.2019, Blaðsíða 28

The City Across
the Bay
‘A!nes Joy’ explores teena!e
life in far-off suburbia
Words: Valur Gunnarsson Photo: Stills from the film
Film
Screening in Háskólabíó (without
subtitles), on VOD from December 19
Silja Hauksdóttir emerged as a
director in 2003 with the charm-
ing ‘Dís,’ based on a novel she co-
wrote. After directing a couple of
episodes of the annual ‘Áramóts-
kaup’ sketch comedy review—in-
cluding the legendary post-col-
lapse edition in 2008—she’s back
with her sophomore effort, ‘Agnes
Joy.’
Frustratingly far away
‘Agnes Joy’ is set almost entirely
in Akranes, a town often ignored
by Icelandic filmmakers. As New
Jersey is to New York City, Akranes
is so close and yet frustratingly far
from the bright city
lights.
Titular charac-
ter Agnes wants a
night on the town
(meaning Reykja-
vík), but her friends
worry about hitch-
ing a ride back and
prefer to sit at home
and watch football.
Though they live in
a virtual Reykjavík
suburb, they might
as well be on the other side of the
country. In one gorgeous shot, we
see the teenagers drinking by the
shore, looking longingly over to
the lights of the capital across the
bay.
Agnes is ably played by new-
comer Donna Cruz, and this is one
of the first films to feature a main
character adopted to Iceland, but
rather than being an anomaly and
the crux of the plot, it is here pre-
sented as rather ordinary. In fact,
it is Agnes’ parents who want to
travel to the Philippines and see
where their adopted daughter is
from, while Agnes, like many
small-town Icelandic teen solely
dreams of moving to Reykjavík.
The seductive next
door neighbour
The plot shuttles between Agnes
and her mother Rannveig, wonder-
fully portrayed by Katla "orgeirs-
dóttir, who does a
memorable dance
during a solo drink-
ing bout. While the
film seems at times
unclear as to who is
the main protago-
nist, both actresses
manage to hold
our attention dur-
ing their respective
screen times.
In ‘Agnes Joy,’
for once, it is the
male characters who seem un-
derdeveloped. Hreinn, played by
Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, is the
handsome new next-door neigh-
bour who chiefly serves the plot
function of seducing both mother
and daughter, a fact he’s rather less
concerned about it than Dustin
Hoffman in ‘The Graduate.’
"orsteinn Bachmann, one of
the country’s finest actors, gets
even less to do as the deadbeat Ein-
ar who hardly musters up enough
energy to get angry with this new
neighbour when the affairs come
to light. The two do get one scene
together when Hreinn gets Einar
to read a script with him and gets
out-acted—a sly nod to the audi-
ence perhaps, but we could have
done with more of this. Watching
actors act as actors can be intrigu-
ing, as both Edward Norton and
Leonardo DiCaprio have shown
recently.
Almost comically
Icelandic setting
The film thankfully avoids being
too heavy-handed. When some-
one praises Agnes for her Icelan-
dic skills it is awkward but not
mean spirited. Things get worse
when she is taken for a prostitute
in Reykjavík, but her heritage is
only mentioned in the reverse in
Akranes, as in the opening scene
when she is throwing up yester-
days’ Opal liquor while wearing a
traditional Icelandic costume, an
almost comically Icelandic setting.
Various subplots could have
been better explored, such as the
relationship between Rannveig
and her mother, and not least the
family company’s intention to hire
foreign workers at less pay to stay
in tune with the times. This is eas-
ily thwarted but could have been
a movie in itself. ‘Agnes Joy’ is a
competent second film from a tal-
ented filmmaker, but it lacks the
oomph to make it extraordinary.
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The titular character in duplicate
“Despite living
in a virtual Reyk-
javik suburb, in
Akranes, they
might as well
be on the other
side of the
country.”
28.11.2019–09.02.2020

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