Every now and then, I am deeply surprised by a movie. I was not aware of the work of Norwegian director Erik Poppe before, but after watching this, I am certainly going to look for his movies in the future. It is a diamond delivered in a plastic bag, and slowly grabs you by the throat and then never lets you go until it has exhausted all emotional aspects and plot structures, without losing sight or direction.
The first act moves along nicely, building a discrete yet surprisingly intimate relation with one of the two (in my opinion) leading characters, the convict Jan Thomas, introvert but solidly played by Norwegian actor Pål Sverre Hagen, who has been paroled to, incredibly, take up a position as an organist in a church in the town, where he committed the murder of a young boy some years earlier.
This is all fine and well, but not a setup that I thought could carry a movie well over two hours in itself. But the director had sort of pulled my leg and suddenly kicks this movie into a whole other gear, while still keeping everything hanging perfectly together. You are just slightly lead to believe that the story is supposed to go in another direction from the first third of the movie.
Chronologically the second act is the first act seen with another persons eyes, the mother of the child that Jan Thomas killed, Agnes, played with incredible power by experienced danish actor Trine Dyrholm. Poppe pulls a Hitchcock (psycho) on us and lets the other main character take over the story in a surprising, yet gently natural move. The point is that as viewers we are set up to have empathy mostly for Jan Thomas, but at the same time this is strongly contested by suddenly viewing it all from the view of the mother of his victim.
This is the energy field that that sets up the even more surprising third act, which comes dangerously close to being a sort of action b-movie, but instead of focusing on lame action, it uses these elements to bring the character´s unresolved emotions to a close. I was genuinely surprised how well the plot structure of especially the third act was put together while still feeling real and engaging.
On a meta level, the story is about how much vigilante actions a person can morally defend based on his or her own need for telling the "right" story and dealing with the hate towards the perpetrator . Agnes puts many of the persons around her in serious jeopardy, by following her mix of curiosity and sense of revenge and protection. This at least for me, gives rise to think about, how those people supporting and working within a welfare state are eager to justify their actions based on their sentiments alone.
While not spending too much time on those aspects here it is not by pure coincidence that the priest, with whom Jan Thomas has romantic relations, is a single mother who just "suddenly" found herself pregnant, but kept the child without telling the child´s father. Agnes is a dominant mother who could be seen as a single mother, with a male provider. Even if her husband engages in the emotional back package of the traumatic murder, Agnes is the one who takes everything into her own hands because she believes without a doubt that she is justified.
Poppe manages to bring the emotional journey´s and the intricate plot structure so well together that I was genuinely surprised and actually relieved that it did not feel contrived or a show of effects. A brilliant movie, with great actor performances, even from the two young boys and the supporting actors in lesser roles. A really enjoyable and surprising experience. I cannot find any faults in this piece of art anywhere, so I am only left to give this the highest character.
10/10