Director: Joachin Trier

Stars: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning, Anders Danielsen Lie

Renate Reinsve reunites with her ‘Worst Person in the World’ writer-director Joachin Trier for this nuanced if mannered comedy drama. Reinsve is Nora, a successful actress in Oslo who, as we discover in a striking opening sequence, has begun to experience bouts of stage fright. Her sister Agnes (Lilleaas) is a happily married historian with a son. When Agnes’ and Nora’s mother, who had more or less brought them up singlehandedly, dies, their errant father Gustav (Skarsgård), a Swedish arthouse director, returns to reclaim his house and tensions arise. Nora especially resents Gustav for his absence when they were growing up, as well as his alcoholism. Agnes is more sympathetic. Gustav’s clumsy, gruff attempts to win Nora over, which include trying to persuade her to star in what is clearly a biographical family drama that he is struggling to get financed, only exacerbates a fraught situation. When Nora refuses, Gustav hires Hollywood star Rachel Kemp (Fanning). The moments of high Scandinavian seriousness and Bergmanesque depiction of tortured creatives, frayed family relationships, and comparisons between stage and real life, leavened with tart moments of humour, feels almost quaint and old-fashioned. There is even a second-hand nod to Bergman via a plot point lifted from Woody Allen’s chilly Wild Strawberries’-style drama ‘Another Woman’. Still, this is exceptionally well-acted particularly by Skarsgård, Reinsve and Lilleaas and there are genuine moments of genuine bitter insight here.

David Willoughby

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