Oslo, August 31st

Oslo, August 31st

28/3/2012 1h 30m 7.5/10

Overview

A recovering drug addict is granted a day’s leave from rehab and returns to Oslo, where he reconnects with friends, faces the weight of his past, and struggles with uncertainty about his future. Over the course of one day, he drifts through encounters that reflect his longing for connection and his deep sense of alienation.

Director

Joachim Trier

Top Billed Cast

Hans Olav Brenner

Hans Olav Brenner

Thomas

Anders Danielsen Lie

Anders Danielsen Lie

Anders

Malin Crépin

Malin Crépin

Malin

Øystein Røger

Øystein Røger

David

Tone Beate Mostraum

Tone Beate Mostraum

Tove

Ingrid Olava

Ingrid Olava

Rebecca

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

5/22/2024

7/10

Anders Danielsen Lie offers a really quite intense performance here as the recovering drug addict "Anders". His physicians think he's sufficiently improved to be able to spend a day, unsupervised, in Oslo, with family and friends and to have an interview for a job. Initially it all goes well. He drops in on "Thomas" (Hans Olav Brenner) and his family and is geared up (not literally) for his interview. That's where the wheels come off and we spend the rest of his day as he reminisces about the past, encounters some of those important to that past and gradually appears to be coming to terms with what he considers best for his future. Joachim Trier uses the gentle pacing of this drama to allow Lie to slowly demonstrate his character's sense of introspection and considered self-destruction. This isn't an ill-educated man who grew up in squalor or depravity, this is an erudite and engaging "Anders" who comes from a decent, loving, home that's not without it's ups and downs, but ought to have provided him with more of an emotional robustness that we are presented with here. There is a solid cast of supporting actors - Malin Crépin ("Malin") strong amongst them, as his brain appears to be putting his house in order. It's not an easy film to sit through. It's traumatic in a delicate and measured sort of way, and Lie delivers us a persona with whom it's easy enough to empathise and want to give a good shake to, too.

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