TIFF 2006: Discovery: Reprise

This is the best film at the festival yet. The feature debut of Joachim Trier, apparently a cousin of Lars Von Trier, there is (thankfully) absolutely no sign of any influence from his sickeningly overrated cousin. This movie stands alone as an astoundingly mature piece of work from the two time national skateboarding champ of Norway (really!)

The film begins with Erik (Espen Klouman Høiner) and Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie), two aspiring writers, as they pause before placing their manuscripts into the mailbox to send them off to the publishers. Before you have time to breathe, the film rushes through a lifetime of what they imagine and hope could happen; a lifetime of clichéd brilliance that is not to be. Seconds later the film returns to the moment; Joy Division’s New Dawn Fades kicks in, and the “real” sequence of events begins.

Reprise is a powerful film of the joys and sorrows of youthful ambition, and how the events of life can change what you’ve planned. This is no tired "coming of age" piece; the narrative skips between crystallized moments of the past and present with a deft touch an a powerful soundtrack. The film ends with yet more that could be and that you as the viewer only wish was true, so much have you grown to love everything about the characters, as flawed as they are. 5/5