SIFF Review: Upperdog

A White Tank Top Movie Review

You never know when you’re going to walk into a slick Hollywood movie made in Norway but that’s what happened with Sara Johnsen’s Upperdog. While it may seem disappointing to see standard fare romantic comedy at SIFF, I was buoyed. It’s not like Hollywood itself is turning out any good films in the genre (hello: Killers).

The biggest difference is that the Norwegian actors are much better looking than their American counterparts. You can keep Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Heigl. Give me the somewhat-tall, dark and handsome Hermann Sabado as spoiled Axel and Agnieszka Grochowska as his family’s new maid Maria (picture a Norse-Pole Zooey Deschanel). Give me the radiant Bang Chau as Axel’s long lost half-sister. And, for the love of god, give me Mads Sjøgård Pettersen as the ex-soldier Per, who must have walked onto the set straight from an Abercrombie & Fitch shoot.

Read the full review after the jump.

The story is as neat as it gets (but don’t trust the siff.net synopsis — it’s comically mistaken on character gender). Axel was adopted into a rich family and condescends to everyone whereas Yanne got a coat-checking single mom and thus steams up the kitchen in a small restaurant. (I would include here the Asian country of the half-siblings’ origin if it were ever mentioned. And all reviews of the film refer to them nonspecifically as “Asian.”)

The footloose Maria immediately takes a stab at Axel’s nationality when she surprises him stark naked in the kitchen.  “You’re a Chinamen!” Axel responds with chilly condescension but we can already see they’re smitten. This might have led to a simple love story, but wait — Maria’s roommate on the rough side of Oslo is Yanne, still troubled by memories of her long lost little brother…

Within the conventional plot, Johnsen finds room for some well-done compositional mirroring. She often cuts from one person in profile to another person in profile.  Or she shifts from a screen focused on elements on the right hand side, to a shot full of heavy elements on the left.  Some of her edits would seem too quick if there wasn’t that subtle, underlying continuity.

But I’m forgetting that smoldering hunk of Army veteran Per. He has post-traumatic stress disorder from a deadly accident in Afghanistan and a broken heart from a photographer who exploited his image for anti-war propaganda.

We sure get the feeling that Per would benefit from the placid beauty of someone like Yanne who, helpfully, runs the restaurant across the street from his apartment! There we see long looks through plate glass and a nice repeated joke of how shyly the two say “hi” to each other. Though they eventually get to an exchange of little pecks they remain frustratingly chaste compared to Axel and Maria. The aggravation of their delayed romance reminds me of Hawaii, Oslo (I’ve seen maybe five Norwegian films ever and had to slide in one reference), where the star-crossed protagonists wait for what feels like days of screen time before getting together.

Johnsen finally rewards our patience with a great shot of Yanne and Per on a horizontal plane, where you can’t tell who is moving in on who. It hits all my marks: real chemistry, fluid camerawork and wardrobe that includes a white tank top.

Formulaic or not, I’m here to tell you Upperdog is the best date movie you can see this Wednesday (at the Uptown). And be sure to thank the Norwegian Consulate General for bringing it to Seattle.

Check out the SIFF 2010 guide to see what's on at SIFF tonight.  Or see our recommendations at cityartsonline.com/siff.