★★☆☆☆
27 February 2020
A movie review of A WHITE, WHITE DAY. |
D: Hlynur Palmason (WINTER BROTHERS).
S: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Elma Stefania Agustsdottir, Þór Tulinius, Laufey Elíasdóttir.
This review contains spoilers.
“You’re right, I can be a monster sometimes,” Ingimunder (Ingvar Sigurdsson)
A WHITE, WHITE DAY opens with a car accident in extreme fog. The automobile is driven off the road. Two years pass in snapshots. The victim was the wife (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir) of policeman Ingimunder. “She made me and now she isn’t here anymore.” Even with such a moving line from the daughter, Élin (Elma Stefania Agustsdottir), the movie is not from her perspective. The story is concerned with humiliation, grief, and rage filtered through a prism of masculinity.
S: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Elma Stefania Agustsdottir, Þór Tulinius, Laufey Elíasdóttir.
This review contains spoilers.
“You’re right, I can be a monster sometimes,” Ingimunder (Ingvar Sigurdsson)
A WHITE, WHITE DAY opens with a car accident in extreme fog. The automobile is driven off the road. Two years pass in snapshots. The victim was the wife (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir) of policeman Ingimunder. “She made me and now she isn’t here anymore.” Even with such a moving line from the daughter, Élin (Elma Stefania Agustsdottir), the movie is not from her perspective. The story is concerned with humiliation, grief, and rage filtered through a prism of masculinity.
Ingimunder currently resides in a house in the middle of nowhere, in a town in the middle of nowhere. (The property is being renovated for his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. If it is a metaphor, for incompleteness and passing the baton onto the next generation, it is a clunky one.) The anguish and unspoken loneliness trigger the idea in the lead’s head that his wife’s death might not be by misadventure. Ingimunder begins to think he does not have the whole picture.
As a vehicle for an interrogation of masculinity, A WHITE, WHITE DAY is an unsatisfying one. Husband, father, grandfather. Some hats of a man. Neither the movie nor the character delves into these profoundly. The patriarchy is cursorily examined. There is not enough going on here. One member of the community reinforces outdated gender notions. A single male example lacks the necessary weight to demonstrate that breaking from traditional views, for men of a certain age, can be arduous.
A widower’s memory of his dead spouse is tarnished on the realisation she might have been having an affair. The large age difference between the actors, about 13 years, is not remarked upon. There are vague allusions to emotional repercussions, but Ingimunder lacks self-analysis. However, his certainties have been pulled from under him. The affair suggests to him he was wanting. In how many areas? The film seems about a hunt for superficial answers, and that cliché of terms, closure. The lead as drawn will not get the important answers though.
Ingimunder’s burgeoning humiliation and anger is reflected in increasing bouts of antisocial behaviour. From trashing the office of psychiatrist Georg (Þór Tulinius) and yelling at his granddaughter, to beating up fellow officers. His lack of self-reflection makes the character unlikable, and therefore it is difficult to care about his predicaments. Plus he causes minor havoc in a small town, and is not punished. If you compassionately argue that mercy should be shown, because of his grief and contributions to society, then why is that same standard not offered to everyone? Why should he find peace? What Ingimunder does to his wife’s lover would warrant some serious jail time. What if the lead had not been Caucasian, would the same leniency and forgiveness and empathy have been on the table? This movie feels tone deaf. Though, maybe I am misinterpreting the film and the character?
A WHITE, WHITE DAY is not in the same league as writer-director Hlynur Palmason’s excellent debut, WINTER BROTHERS [2017]. The material here is too slight for the runtime. This story of grief does not sit right. The toxic masculinity appears to go without censure.