Camden New Journal - Movies: The Bothersome man

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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 24 May 2007

Andreas (Trond Aurvag) seeks love with Anne-Brit (Petronella Barker)

Powerful look at dead-end rural life

THE BOTHERSOME MAN
Directed by Jens Lien
Certificate 15

HERE'S a weird one. An empty landscape in Norway. Misty fjords, low hills. A coach draws up at a remote garage and its sole passenger gets out.
Enter the bothersome man. Andreas (Trond Aurvag) is a 40-ish loner who finds himself in a dead-end town in a dead-end accountant’s job.
Small-talk dinner parties are the norm here and anyone who doesn’t conform stands out like a rusty hub cap on a Rolls Royce.
In desperation, he embarks on affairs with two women on the staff (Petronella Barker, Birgitte Larsen) only to find they prefer new fashions and designer furniture to any true emotion.
Directed with a lean minimalism by Jens Lien – white walls, harsh scenery, dialogue pared to the bone – this is an unexpectedly powerful little piece about loneliness and isolation. Part of the current Critics Week at Cannes, it may well walk off with deserved plaudits. We’ll see.

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