David Matthews

20 February

Reykjavik-Rotterdam
dir. Óskar Jónasson
Iceland

Reykjavik-Rotterdam is a gritty thriller, dark, grim, and brutal. Kristófer is a former seaman out on probation after doing some jail time for smuggling alcohol. Married with two young sons, in love with his wife, Iris, he wants no part of his old life, but he and Iris are beset by financial woes and he lets his friend Steingrímur talk him into shipping out one last time, on a freighter to Rotterdam, to make last score that will solve his problems.

Things go awry from the get-go as Kristófer and Iris run afoul of a dizzying array of psychopathic thugs brought down on them by her halfwit, screw-up brother, and Steingrímur has his own agenda that does not have Kristófer’s best interests at heart.

Reykjavik-Rotterdam starts slowly, and it took me a while to warm up to the two protagonists. The pace picks up in Rotterdam, where Kristófer and his pal are dragged into an art heist that turns into a wild, shoot-out fiasco from which they unwittingly walk away with what looks to my amateur’s eye like it could be a Jackson Pollack canvas, an item lost on the smugglers, who would not know Jackson Pollack from Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

In the end Kristófer shows himself to be more resourceful and clever than we might think a fellow who’s been popped for smuggling three times already as he outwits the double-dealing Steingrímur, his gang, and the cops while exacting revenge on a petty tyrant of a freighter captain. He might even be worthy of Iris, a tough woman left behind to be terrorized by thugs and betrayed by the one person she thought was a friend she could turn to.

Early on, and even some way into Reykjavik-Rotterdam, I thought I would not like this one. By the time the credits rolled, I found I quite enjoyed it.

David :: Feb.21.2010 :: House Red: Film :: No Comments »

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