The directorial debut of Joachim Trier, Reprise is the tale of two 20-something friends, Phillip (Anders Danielson Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Hoiner), both aspiring writers who hope to be on the cusp of huge success. The movie begins as the young men stand at the mailbox, each about to drop off their first novels. The movie then muses about what will become of them, should they become screaming successes and takes a quick but interesting journey, using very cool angles and ideas. One that I really liked had the boys sitting there stoically in black and white, each sharing a half of the screen as the narrator spoke. It was framed to be their pictures on the back covers of their books and then they started interacting with each other and making faces and it was a very clever way of handling the moment. However, what they imagined would happen and what really happens are two wildly different things.
Phillip's novel becomes an immediate success, launching him into celebrity status, while Erik's book continues to be rejected. However, the two remain friends. Phillip becomes interested in a girl named Kari (Viktoria Winge), who is currently dating Rune (Andreas Tylden), the older brother of a close friend and who is also the guitarist in a famous band. Kari and Phillip begin dating, but soon, Phillip is not only overwhelmed by his success, but he becomes obsessed with Kari, to the point of a mental breakdown. After spending some time in a mental institution, Phillip's family decides he is healthier not seeing Kari, but he cannot stand to be away from her and they reunite, only to realize that the magic is gone. Phillip finds he has writer's block and feels Kari is his muse, but he eventually realizes that he must stand on his own and not rely upon her for inspiration.
In the meantime, Erik's novel is finally picked up and then he becomes successful, only to decide he should break up with his longtime girlfriend Lillian (Silje Hagen), simply because he needs to be free. He feels he is just with Lillian because she is comfortable and he takes great pains to never bring her to any of his gatherings with friends, although I can't imagine why. She is quite beautiful. Eventually, Lillian realizes that he has been lying to her about his whereabouts and breaks up with him.
There is also an odd side-story about Phillip and Erik's idol, novelist Sten Egil Dahl, who rose to great success with his novels at a young age and then went off to live as a recluse. They try and find ways to meet up with him, once attending a function that they believe he will be at. When Erik does see Dahl and runs outside to speak to him, he ends up making a bit of a fool out of himself, acting like a fan boy and being upstaged by another acquaintance, one who already has a published novel and speaks far more eloquently to Dahl. Later, Phillip and Erik see Dahl in the park with his dog and they realize where he lives. Towards the end of the film, as both Phillip and Erik are having really rough times, Erik ends up getting beaten up on the street by a boy he wronged as a child and ends up getting cared for by none other than Dahl himself. It is then that Erik is finally able to show himself to be a success to his idol and not just a blubbering idiot.
What I probably found the hardest to believe was the fact that in a small group of maybe 7 friends, 4 of them could become famous novelists. Phillip, Erik, the aforementioned guy who stole the thunder from Erik when speaking to Dahl and also Rune, who also becomes a famous novelist at the end of the film, eclipsing both Phillip and Erik's success. This is ironic because he was the one who mocked the publishing business and made an enemy of Erik's female publisher, only to later fall in love with her and marry her. Maybe Oslo, Norway is a community where anyone can and will become a famous novelist, but it just seemed kind of unlikely and I had a hard time finding it realistic.
While not a bad movie by any stretch, it just didn't really do anything special for me. If you are a fan of foreign films, you may enjoy seeing Reprise. There are several featurettes describing how the film was made and the fact that a number of the actors have other professions. There's a really funny montage of all the times the cast says "I'm sorry," since apparently that's a popular Norwegian phrase. As to the film itself, there is a clever directing style and it is clearly obvious in the beginning and pops up throughout, but had it been continued more overtly throughout the film, I think it could have really been outstanding. As it is, it was just okay.
