Falcons Movie Review:


This hesitant, minimalist road movie has a beguiling tone that draws us in, even when it feels somewhat awkward and contrived. After spending much of his adult life in prison, Simon (Carradine) heads back to his mother's native Iceland. He feels that his life has been pointless, and he's decided to end it all when he meets quirky performance artist Dua (Vilhjalmsdottir), who's caring for her sick uncle's dogs, as well as the valuable Icelandic falcon he rescued. But a thuggish local cop (Sigurdsson) is after both of them, and they end up on the run, catching a trawler to Germany, where Dua's earth-mother sensibilities and irresponsibility with money starts to push Simon around the bend. But by then he's convinced she's his daughter from a one-night stand 30 years earlier.

Fridriksson works in that bracing Icelandic filmmaking style--sharp light, bold colours, idiosyncratic characters and scenes that contain long stretches of either utter silence or rambling dialog. It's so refreshing that we overlook the story's over-constructed plot as well as a general sense of awkwardness, which may be intentional. Carradine is such an offbeat presence on screen that we're not sure whether he's good or not, but he's so fascinating and magnetic that we're gripped by everything he says and does. And in her new-age nuttiness, grounded with an honest intuition, Vilhjalmsdottir is his perfect counterpart.

Watching these two social outcasts find comfort in each other is remarkably insightful and entertaining, but Fridriksson never hurries it along. They're both connecting with each other and discovering truths about themselves that they've ignored all their lives. Fridriksson lets this develop organically on screen, gentling prodding things along and continually finding visually amazing angles on each scene--funny, ironic, emotional. It's an engaging odyssey that continually surprises us--it's so original that we never really have a clue where it's going next, although the emotionally startling conclusion doesn't come as a surprise.

Rich Cline

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