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THE SEA Send This Review to a Friend
How many skeletons does it take to fill a closet? Plenty if you happen to be looking into a family in the remote Icelandic fishing village of Baltasar Kormákur's angst-ridden drama. There is so much trauma building to a melodramatic crescendo that "The Sea" almost borders on satire. This is not a family to which one would like to belong.
Thórdur (Gunnar Eyjólfsson) is the head of the main village fishing company, which is finding survival difficult in the face of pressure by large corporations. But his allotted quota is an asset. His son Haraldur (Sigurdur Skúlason) has been looking after the business, but Thórdur asks Haraldur's sister Ragnheidur (Gudrún S. Gísladóttir) and brother Ágúst (Hilmir Snaer Gudnason) to a family dinner in the hope of sorting out the future. His presumed heirs would prefer that he sell the business and move to Reykjavík.
The film dramatizes the various self-interests at play and the plotting and manipulations by family members and their mates. There are enough hatreds and secrets to make up a whole Icelandic film festival, but all are crammed into this one moody and ultimately hysterical family furor.
Kormákur doesn't leave us short on atmosphere and certainly not short on plot. The cast members act as if every role was the main one, and "The Sea" emerges as one big depth charge, more laughable than moving. A Palm Pictures release.
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