(****)

An American movie star asks, “Why didn’t you want to do the role?” The daughter of the director, an actress, responds, “I can’t work with him. My father is a very difficult person.” And so, it goes. A daddy/daughter relationship fraught with bad feelings and lots of history churns and churns. 

Absentee dads, and their behavior’s repercussions, are an issue that causes drama all around the world. This ongoing father crisis takes place in Oslo, Norway. A large imposing red house, one with Dragon Style architecture, similar to American Carpenter Gothic, holds family secrets dating back decades. That’s when Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård, Dune: Part One and Two), a young husband and filmmaker, had a stormy relationship with his wife. Arguments haunted the halls. Two little girls cowered in corners, behind closed doors. Year’s later, there is a reckoning, brought on by the death of the wife and a post-funeral gathering in that crimson mansion that held them altogether. Until it couldn’t.

That’s how Oscar® nominated screenwriter Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), who also directs his films, starts this family saga. Along with co-screenwriter Eskil Vogt, Trier captures the past and present in a home and contemplates what the future will be for a wayward father and his two grown daughters. Nora (Renate Reinsve), the elder one, is a never-married anxiety-riddled actress. Her young, more emotionally stable sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), is a mom and a wife. For good measure, toss in a showy American actress, Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), an interloper who is oblivious to what came before. 

This up-close look at family is rendered with the kind of microscopic emotional and mental detail long exhibited by another outstanding Scandinavian auteur, Ingmar Bergman (Secrets & Whispers). The Oscar®-nominated writer/director was a champ at making movies with characters whose repressed feelings drove them crazy. In this story, the scene at the repast, a Bergman-like plot device, is so packed with drama you’d think the script couldn’t top this awkward moment. But in minutes it does. Painstakingly.

One night, a play at the National Theater in Oslo is about to begin. Nora, the lead, waits back stage for her big entrance. The house is packed outside with eager theatergoers. An announcement is made, the curtain is ready to go up, and Nora freezes. Try as the stage crew may, they can’t get the nervous, mortified actress to move. She takes a step forward. Two steps back. Runs back to her dressing room for courage, a fleeting emotion. Seconds, then minutes go by as the awkward stalemate continues, and the audience gets restless. Nora is paralyzed, willing to try anything to break the impasse. But none of her old tricks are working. Time ticks by. She rips her costume off in total frustration—yet, nothing is alleviating the abject fear that constrains her. Will the show go on?  

This sequence has to be one of the most uncomfortable and nerve-racking scenes ever filmed in a drama. She looks lost in her anxiety. And as a viewer, you’re embarrassed for her and wonder what happened in her life that pushed the talented thespian to the brink of insanity. That’s where the rest of the brilliant screenplay by Vogt and Trier comes in. The storyline shows the depth of pain that a neglectful dad, who ignored his daughters for way too long, left behind.  

The older and now reflective Gustav wants to worm his way back into his offsprings lives by filming a movie in their house. Filmmaking is the one skill he has that could become an instrument of reconciliation. It’s like a baseball player asking his adult estranged children to play ball with him or go to a game as a way to forget the past, live in the moment and mend fences. The overture doesn’t go well. He can’t read the room. Doesn’t comprehend the depth of resentment, animosity and mistrust his daughters hurl his way. They’re not making it easy. Forgiveness is not on the menu. Particularly for Nora. Gustav, “You two are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” Nora, “Then why weren’t you there!”

The parent/adult child conflict builds and builds. Every overture fails. Even offering his testy daughter a lead role is not enough to win her affection. Then casting an American actress (Fanning), instead, becomes one more insult on a pile of grievances. Wisely as the family drama boils to a head, the writers have a bunch of surprises instore for the viewers. A final shocking turn of events that puts all the weird motives that came before it into context. Warning. Sit through the entire 133 minutes of this drama to feel it’s real impact. Then get ready to be awed. 

The footage is a joy to watch, as filmed by cinematographer Kasper Tuxen, who was also behind the camera on The Worst Person In the World. He lights the home well, film festival scenes in Deauville, France couldn’t be more beguiling and the intimate scenes, whether capturing love or hate, are perfectly staged and composed. The house and its rooms are filled with life (production designer Jorgen Strangebye Larsen). Clothes look everyday-ish or glamourous depending on the scene and the need (costume designer Ellen Daehli Ystehede). Sublime sequences and those that need to flourish get a winsome or dramatic assistance from the musical score (Hania Rani). While editor Olivier Bugge Coutté has a particularly difficult task. The film starts slow, and the plotline builds cryptically and methodically. Giving what’s on view a rhythm is not easy. But Coutté finds the beat the footage needs. 

The weighty narrative’s twists and turns are based on psychodrama and not action. That means its success relies heavily on the performances making an impact. Reinsve superbly handles that responsibility as the guarded little girl who became the obstinate adult daughter determined to make her feelings known to a man who has none. She carries her wounds like medals and puts across a debilitating angst in the most realistic ways. Her antithesis is Lilleaas, who plays the go-between daughter who smooths out the wrinkles, with a very conservative charm. Skarsgård is extremely effective as the dad, whose motivation seem suspicious almost throughout.    

Adult audiences will be fascinated by this intriguing case of Scandinavian melancholia. Learning why an actress would walk away from a role that could change her life, just to spite her father, will be an engaging experience. Like group therapy. Between a neurotic thespian, a very difficult person and those who observe.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb1sSfWb1Og
Photos courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival 
For more information about the Toronto International Film Festival go to https://tiff.net/. 
Visit Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.