"Jar City," Baltasar Kormákur’s tight little thriller based on the Scandinavian crime writers’ Glass Key Award-winning novel "Mýrin" by fellow Icelander Arnaldur Indriðason, takes the familiar crime procedural and injects it with a specific (Arctic) sensibility, much in the way of Erik Skjoldbjærg’s "Insomnia" before it was hijacked by Hollywood, Christopher Nolan at the helm. Kormákur, best known for his adrift if crowd-pleasing Icelandic slacker film "101 Reykjavik," benefits greatly from the strong foundation and narrative focus of a good book. With confidence in his compelling story -- or rather, “stories”, since the film breezes along on two parallel threads -- the director seems better able to concentrate on the details that make a film believable, from the eerie (lack of) northern light, which envelops everything in a deathly bluish glow, to the hardships of being a vegetarian in Iceland (if you are and Reykjavik is in your travel plans bring along a lot of protein bars -- trust me).
To read the rest of my review visit The House Next Door at:
http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2008/02/no-mans-land-jar-city.html
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