MOVIE REVIEW: LAMB

 

In rural Iceland, a childless couple discover a strange and unnatural newborn in their sheep barn. They decide to raise her as their own, but sinister forces are determined to return the creature to the wilderness that birthed her.

Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson

Release Date: 1h 46min

Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

Rated R for some bloody violent images and sexuality/nudity

Runtime: 1h 46min

Review:

Valdimar Jóhannsson’s debut film is a meditative folk tale that plays like a long lost Grimm's Fairy Tales.  Jóhannsson’s film is beautifully filmed, filled with wonderfully composed shots that he leaves on screen for maximum effect.  It’s the type of film that’s uses visuals far more than actual dialogue, there’s barely a line of dialogue in the film for the first thirty minutes.  It’s methodical in its paces almost to a fault but maintains a steady sense of eeriness and foreboding for the majority of its runtime.  Holding together the scant script are two fantastic turns from Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Snær Guðnason.  Rapace and Guðnason communicate book loads of information with simple looks and gestures, the mundane sadness and grief seeps through the screen in the film’s first half.  They’re understated subtle performances that are so emotionally dense that you just have to appreciate the talent on display.  Björn Hlynur Haraldsson joins the pair as the loser brother in law in the second half of the film who brings some chaotic energy to the pairs new found familial bliss.  Lamb is the type of film that won’t be for everyone with it’s leisurely pace and bizarre conceit but it creates a palpable sense of tension while being touching at the same time.

B+