Wednesday, September 7, 2011

DEVIL'S ISLAND (1996)

In an Icelandic slum where all of the families live in old abandoned U.S. Army barracks, the mother of two teenage boys marries a soldier and movies to America. One boy goes to live with her while the other stays with his grandparents and some other family members that are all living in the same barrack. Years (?) later the one boy, now a man, returns completely Americanized. At this point I thought the story was going to be a coming-of-age comedy, kinda like MISCHIEF, but instead the returning brother is an giant asshole and he terrorizes the entire neighborhood with his wild friends partying nonstop. He even goes so far as to...well, I'm not going to ruin it for you, but this dude is a total prick and needs his ass whipped.

Despite it not being like the trailer (below) lead me to believe I still liked this film. It was well made and showed a world that's not often touched on in cinema. That alone makes it worth watching, but I do wish the script had been a little more touching. I never felt a connection to any of the characters and was indifferent whenever emotional stuff happened.

Another minor gripe is the passage of time. The one brother went to American and then immediately he's back, physically looking the same, but from the way they talked it seemed like he was there for years. This kind of thing happened a few times. Who knows, maybe I'm just too dumb to figure it out.

Worth watching if you come across a copy, but nothing to go out of your way for.