For all the artsier-than-thou foreign film junkies, this delightful discovery should be next on your list if it hasn’t been checked off already: “Hawaii, Oslo.” Directed and co-written by Erik Poppe, “Hawaii, Oslo” comes straight from the oft-neglected world of Norwegian cinema and though it doesn’t explode upon landing, it definitely kicks up a dust cloud or two to firmly mark its presence.
The film was made in 2004 and I’ve actually been meaning to watch it intermittently throughout the past couple of years but never got the chance until I started my BRILLIANT free trial Netflix subscription last week. (I’m kind of a freebie-whore.) The story took awhile to get into as it follows multiple people whose backstories must be carved out and characters fully shaped, but little pieces unfold one by one with each no less gratifying than the previous.
So much goes on in the film that it would be confusing (let alone exhausting to the sleep-deprived during midterms week) to recount the events that the ten characters encounter on one hot summer day…but here’s a foolish attempt anyway: Vidar, the caretaker or more aptly-titled “guardian” at a psychiatric ward in Oslo, has a vivid, premonition-like dream concerning the death of his favorite patient, Leon, a nervous but endearing kleptomaniac, who is turning 25 and is anxious to reunite with a long-lost former flame, Asa, who comes to find him on his birthday but gets caught up in a struggle with two orphaned boys, whose father recently died and mother abandoned them long ago but makes repeated suicide attempts only to be saved by Viggo, a well-meaning ambulance driver who has just overseen the birth of a baby boy who will tragically have no more than four days to live if he doesn’t undergo expensive surgery, much to the anguished disbelief of his father, Frode, who will stop at no costs to save his newborn. Still with me? Exceelleennttt. There’s about two more character descriptions that I should fit into that ridiculous run-on sentence, but I’ll spare you the headache.
If I had to compare this to an American film, it would probably be along the lines of “Crash” with the whole seemingly-unrelated-characters’-lives-becoming-fatefully-intertwined aspect of it, though “Crash” was set against a backdrop of racism while this one subtly highlights the dimensions of love – familial, platonic, estranged, passionate – and how its sheer force can spark possibility in the darkest of places. Screenshots of a kaleidoscope’s vibrant patterns are sometimes used to transition between stories, perhaps symbolizing the disorienting beauty of the connections and crossed paths that we, as social beings, continually experience in life, albeit often unbeknownst to us.
Though the hand-held camera angles and choppy segueways scream indie flick, “Hawaii, Oslo” has more to gain from that status than most. Its unpretentious narration and minimal use of background music (which mostly consisted of variations on a simple bell melody) is refreshing and allows viewers to become absorbed in the characters’ raw emotion and frugal dialogue. We wonder if Frode is thinking rationally in pursuing the risky operation yet understanding his desperation as he scrapes up funds for what is the only chance he has at saving his child; we can feel the orphan Mikkel’s irrepressible waves of rage, stemming from a childhood of losing too much and growing up too fast. The ensemble cast gives impressive, provocative performances and truly carry the film to its climactic, chill-inducing conclusion.
All in all, I highly recommend “Hawaii, Oslo” to any open-minded film-lover capable of feeling, for it is at once heartbreaking, heartrending but ultimately heartwarming, and proves that even without the big bangs and blasts, you still get a lot of heart.
~Sarah Lee
