Directed by:
Joachim TrierCinematography:
Kasper TuxenComposer:
Ola FløttumCast:
Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Maria Grazia Di Meo, Hans Olav Brenner, Deniz Kaya, Vidar Sandem, Olav Stubberud, Gisle Tveito (more)Plots(1)
The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is. (Criterion)
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Reviews (10)
The relationship between the distracted Julie and the internally balanced Aksel reflects all possible problems and vices of the contemporary world, with which we are willingly rushing to meet our doom. I find it quite strange that during the free fall, happy moments flash by, moments that have the power to pull the viewer into joyful euphoria. And that's exactly what happened to me a couple of times while watching the movie. (85%)
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This film is quite hard to pin down. It presents itself as a comedy but is more of an artsy, slightly detached drama. Julie, in her thirties, is uncertain about what she wants—pretty typical for her age, but she should be figuring it out by now. She goes through life's ups and downs, just like everyone else, but with a bit more thrown in. Sometimes, it's absurdly funny, other times it jumps to emotionally engaging and sad moments. The constant shift in emotions makes the film feel inconsistent. In the end, it's just as I said: hard to grasp and emotionally all over the place — a bit unusual for Scandinavian cinema.
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An interesting, skillfully made attempt at a generational film, the acceptance or rejection of which largely depends on whether you are, or consider yourself to be, part of the generation that is the subject of the director's interest. Speaking of Joachim Trier, it is of course speculation on my part, but I would bet that he put a large part of himself into the character Axel. The unfortunate Axel is the character that I relate to the most in terms of age and life attitudes, and he is also the most sympathetic character. I consider his media battle with the assertive feminist to be the most entertaining and intellectually valuable moment of the film. The pleasant Renate Reinsve plays (for me) an unpleasant Julia because she is scattered and emotionally unstable, constantly searching for herself until the final credits. She represents a growing group of people who delay important life decisions for as long as possible, mainly because life on the increasingly economically suffocating but still damn rich West seems to offer (seemingly) endless opportunities and risk-free experimentation. Few people realize that this world and the life strategies that stem from it are irreversibly ending due to the ecological crisis and the unprecedentedly rapid transfer of wealth to emerging East Asia. The variety of topics that Joachim Trier presents in his film gives every viewer a chance to find "their own thing" among them. Overall impression: 75%.
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At first glance, this is just another conversational relationship movie whose ending is reminiscent of clichéd Hollywood schlock. But the first thing that came to my mind when I woke up the next morning was HE and SHE, intensely, as if I knew them personally, and the story they gave each other. The sunset scene still pains me to this day. When was the last time we saw such an apt and sincere relationship flick? Joachim Trier is a perceptive psychologist with a unique feel for finely drawing characters, which he enlivens with nice filmmaking ideas – stopping time at the moment of falling in love and the fitting animated depiction of a mushroom trip influenced by the weight of one’s current thoughts on life. Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie are an outstanding acting duo.
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