Friday Review-Jar City (2008)

People have mixed feelings about Netflix but if there's one thing that can be said for the TV and Film website it's that it has a wealth of foreign films that might otherwise go unnoticed and Jar City is one of these. An Icelandic film that is part murder mystery, part cop drama and all very dismal. When a murder is committed, tired detective, Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson), finds a mysterious clue at the scene- a picture of a grave marker with the name of a young girl who died some thirty years earlier. Meanwhile, a young employee at a genetics lab  (Atli Rafn Sigurdarson ) is in mourning after the death of his young daughter from a genetic disease, a disease that shouldn't be in their family in the first place. In this small town these two stories intersect in ways that seem at once improbable and simultaneously realistic. Erlendur must also deal with a pregnant daughter who happens to be a drug addict as well, an alarming and realistic problem, especially in climates like these. The striking scenery of the film, the marshes of Iceland and the seemingly ever present cold and gray give this film a sort of mellow feel, not bombastic or over the top. There's no gore and most of the deaths, minus the original murder, seem to come about as the result of poor choices and/or disease and yet the film does not seem judgmental of it's characters, in fact, at times some more judgement seems necessary. Overall, Jar City is an enjoyable, although dark, film and a refreshing break from the sensationalism of its Hollywood counterparts. The juxtaposition of a genetics lab with the harsh reality of the injustice of death and suffering seems timely. Jar City is based on a book by  Arnaldur Indridason and I wouldn't hesitate to give it a read myself. If there's one thing that can be said about us Northern Climates (as one Netflix reviewer aptly noted, at times Iceland could easily pass for Manitoba) it is that we sure know how to make depressingly realistic crime drama (see also DaVinci's Inquest).