Amazon.com: Sexy Spaniard Victoria Abril heats up the wintry city of Reykjavík in 101 Reykjavík. Icelandic slacker Hlynur (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) lives on welfare with his mother, leading a depressed and aimless existence. His mother invites her flamenco teacher, Lola (Abril), to live with them; while his mother is away for New Year's Eve, Hlynur and Lola have a drunken fling. But upon her return, Hlynur's mother tells him that she and Lola are lesbian lovers--and it soon comes out that she and Lola are going to have a baby together. 101 Reykjavík seems to be the contemporary Icelandic version of American movies of the 1970s like Five Easy Pieces, in which antiheroic characters struggle to make sense of a world that doesn't seem to have any place for them. The movie is a bit unfocused, but its urban malaise feels genuine, if not particularly new. Abril is delightful, as always. --Bret Fetzer
Fun when looking for something a little different As the title says, this is a great movie when your in the mood for something a little different from the norm. The characters are great and easy to relate to on a 'day to day' basis. Some of the issues presented are not for everyone, but it should not deter you from watching it.
nothing i missed in iceland i recently visted iceland and heard this movie was worth checking out from some locals. well, i purchased the movie on here, on amazon.. save your money if you are thinking of buying it. it was rushed and predictable.
A little predictable and rushed This movie started off really captivating, but by the middle of it I found myself no longer on the protagonist's side. I also noticed that this movie culminated in pretty formulaically, typical of a lot of other Scandinavian films I've seen. The end wasn't rewarding, and the basic plot ups and downs were similar to films like the Norwegian Elling - it was the same type of style, or so it appeared to me, in any case. The soundtrack also became pretty annoying, with more than half the songs being techno versions of the song "Lola".
High points of this film: It is technically very pretty, filmed well, and makes good use of scenery. The plot is straightforward and fun.
I just don't think this film has too much substance in it. It's good to see once but definitely isn't groundbreaking or a favorite of mine. You should give it a try, though, if you're into Iceland.
Icelandic Slacker Movie 2000 Icelandic not-rated movie. Also known as "101 ehf. kynnir" Caution: full nudity (including male, and female (and brief nudity of and older woman)), and drug use. Something of a strange love-triangle movie.
DVD Features: Contains the film (oddly, the DVD does not specific what language the film is in, though it offers English subtitles), and special features. There are three special features: 1: filmographies; 2: "Trailers from the Wellspring Libraries" (7 trailers, "Irma Vep," "Un Air De Famille," "Clockwatchers," "A Couch in New York," "Hugo Pool," "Stolen Kisses," and "Venus Beauty Institute"; and 3: "Weblinks" (2 links: 1: a website that contains an interview with the movie's director, and 2: the Wellspring website address).
Credits: The movie stars Hilmir Snær Guðnason (Hlynur Bjorn Hafsteinsson; "The Sea"), Victoria Abril (Lola Milagros, from Spain; "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" (1990), "Robin and Marian" (1976), Hanna María Karlsdóttir (Berglind; "Agnes"), Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir (Hófí; "No Trace"), Baltasar Kormákur (Þröstur; "Stormy Weather"), and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (Marri; "Fiasco"). The writer and director is Baltasar Kormakur ("A Little Trip to Heaven") based on the novel by Hallgrimur Helgason.
Plot: Hlynur Bjorn Hafsteinsson is a adult slacker that still lives at home and is very disinterested with moving on with his life. Despite this dispirited drifting through life, he is able to have something of a relationship with a woman named Hofi, but even here he is a slacker and doesn't really care about the relationship. Things change when his mother's friend drops by (Lola; a lesbian, actually she is bi).
Review: The movie opens with a close up of the main actor's face while he is having some fun with a blonde (Hofi). Based on an early monologue, the main guy seems to be fatalistic ("dead before I was born . . . life is an interruption"; a lot of talk of death in the movie; NOTE: it is slightly harder to tell when an actor is talking in his head when you only read subtitles). The includes beautiful shots of Icelandic landscape. Odd, once the Spanish woman arrives, they begin speaking English with her (I don't mean that the rest of the movie is in English; Abril has been around since the `70s, and still looks great (even at around 41), even wandering around her friends apartment nude).
An interesting look at Iceland, if this movie had occurred anywhere except Iceland, it might have been a little boring, but the exotic nature of the locale kept it interesting though a rather slow movie. Interesting music, good for the bleak snowbound world of Reykjavik. Good acting, something of a slice of life plot, some attractive women (not all; though some are quite beautiful), some of the men are jerks (probably just the characters in the movie; apparently, the drunk father and welfare society are the main character's excuses for being a slacker). There are some humorous moments in the film. Overall, I would give the movie 3.85 stars, mostly due to the exotic nature of the locale.
Modern life A fantastically concocted farce. A fifties-clad sexually attractive, aimless, partying nerd with horn rimmed glasses and no hindsight is manhandled by his lesbian mother and her hot blooded lover. They teach him to accept his place as father/brother at the bottom of the totem pole in the family.
For viewers/readers not familiar with Icelandic movies, many are made but few appear outside Scandinavia. Iceland has the highest litracy and readership rate in the world, and the highest rate of book publications. Historocally, since settlement by Norwegians (and some Scots) avoiding kingly rule in the 9th century, Icelanders have been a highly literate and democratic society. See the more modern books by Haldor Laxness, e.g., or Snorre Sturlasonn's history of the kings of Norway (written in the 13th century). [...]
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