The superb cast, particularly the steely-eyed resolve of Edda Björgvinsdóttir’s Inga, do marvels in maintaining the tricky tone.
Given the most flagrantly off-kilter character in the ensemble, Björgvinsdóttir takes much the same approach: Her deep-frozen performance skilfully hovers on the line between catatonic and psychotic, with alternately, sometimes simultaneously, hilarious and horrifying results."
The movie belongs, however, to the scene-stealing Björgvinsdóttir, who spits acrimony and expletives with such force and assurance that she instantly thrusts the character into the annals of memorable screen matriarchs.
"In a movie that feeds on the fury of women, Inga (Edda Bjorgvinsdottir), is by far the scariest. A homemaker of late middle age and barely bottled savagery, she dominates Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s pitch-black Icelandic farce, “Under the Tree,” with such quiet malevolence you can almost feel its vibrations.
The superb cast, particularly the steely-eyed resolve of Edda Björgvinsdóttir’s Inga, do marvels in maintaining the tricky tone.
Given the most flagrantly off-kilter character in the ensemble, Björgvinsdóttir takes much the same approach: Her deep-frozen performance skilfully hovers on the line between catatonic and psychotic, with alternately, sometimes simultaneously, hilarious and horrifying results."
The movie belongs, however, to the scene-stealing Björgvinsdóttir, who spits acrimony and expletives with such force and assurance that she instantly thrusts the character into the annals of memorable screen matriarchs.
"In a movie that feeds on the fury of women, Inga (Edda Bjorgvinsdottir), is by far the scariest. A homemaker of late middle age and barely bottled savagery, she dominates Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s pitch-black Icelandic farce, “Under the Tree,” with such quiet malevolence you can almost feel its vibrations.
