Brúðguminn (2008)

Jon, a middle-aged professor is going to get married tomorrow, for the second time, to one of his ex-students half his age. But it's not all roses. First, there's his cranky ... See full summary »

Director:

Baltasar Kormákur

Writers:

Baltasar Kormákur (screenplay), Ólafur Egilsson (screenplay)

Stars:

Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir, Laufey Elíasdóttir

8 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Hilmir Snær Guðnason	...	Jón
Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir	...	Anna
Laufey Elíasdóttir	...	Þóra
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson	...	Börkur
Jóhann Sigurðarson	...	Lárus
Ólafía Hrönn Jónsdóttir	...	Sísí
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson	...	Sjonni
Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir	...	Matthildur
Ólafur Egilsson	...	Séra Ólafur
Herdís Þorvaldsdóttir	...	Kristín
Karl Guðmundsson	...	Jon's father

Storyline

Jon, a middle-aged professor is going to get married tomorrow, for the second time, to one of his ex-students half his age. But it's not all roses. First, there's his cranky mother-in-law-to-be who violently opposes the marriage and who demands repayment of Jon's loan before the wedding night. Second, his plans to build a golf course on the little island of Flatey where they live aren't going at all to plan. Third, his extremely drunk best man is on the loose without any shoes and lastly, the continual presence of his emotional first wife is haunting his every move. When the guests start flocking to the island, Jon starts getting cold feet. After a very long night of drinking and thinking, will Jon be able to make it to the church on time?

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Plot Keywords:

island | church | golf | golf course | wedding | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Iceland

Language:

Icelandic English

Release Date:

18 January 2008 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

Belali dügün

Filming Locations:

Flatey, Iceland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Blueeyes Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min 96 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Iceland's official entry for the 2009 foreign-language Oscar.

User Reviews

Incomprehensible mess

I liked the first half of the movie because of the beautiful scenery of Iceland. The island is beautiful, the small community on it is interesting and one can easily start to dream how it might be to live in there. Some characters are really funny and definitely likable (the huge Viking-looking friend of the lead character is definitely someone who would be very cool to party with). And the "development project" for the island is funny and crazy as well.

On the other hand the story was somewhat hard to understand for me. It took me half of the movie to actually understand that the movie is basically a big pile of mess assembled from scenes from "the past" and scenes from "the present". These scenes are blended so homogeneously that they actually seem to be single linear yet surreal story. Actually I was not sure if there is one lead character who has one wife and tries to marry another one or if there are identical twins or what the hell happens. I was confused. The cuts basically do not give any clues about temporal relations of individual scenes.

So I have started to untangle the storyline mess only at the end - and the resulting story was not something I would like. Especially the lead character is very ugly in the resulting picture - cold, weak and immoral. His first wife was much more interesting and true character. Maybe it would be better for me if I spent the rest of the movie in false idea that it is just visually beautiful, surreal, experimental movie.