A village. Hera (12) witnesses how her brother falls while driving a tractor and dies from its blades that plow the land. The parents, Droplaug and Karl, attend his funeral, but Hera is disgusted by the picture of Jesus and the injustice of her brother's early death, and adopts a rebellious attitude towards society. A decade later, Hera is into Heavy metal music, a goth girl who constantly searches for trouble: she finds a job in a slaughterhouse, but gets fired for playing music over loudspeakers; she steals a tractor; she smokes in church... She is at first hostile towards the new pastor, yet attempts to kiss him when he reveals an Iron Maiden tattoo. He rejects her, and Hera burns down the church. Ultimately, she finally grows up and takes responsibility: she begins a relationship with neighbor Knutur, plays a concert with a Norwegian band while her parents accept her music.
"Metalhead" is a case study on how a negative, pivotal event in life can trigger anti-social behavior and misplaced anger against the entire world by a teenager, in this edition Hera, a girl who decides to adopt a "counter-culture" persona of a Heavy metal fan in order to show her revolt against the society, yet she finally in the end realizes that there is no enemy she can take revenge on (bad events are, after all, mostly just random chances, anyway), just innocent people around her, and thus ultimately matures and grows up. Director Ragnar Bregason crafts a good film that contemplates how different people cope differently with problems, yet he lacks true highlights and inspiration to truly catapult it into more than many other such similar stories, which are a dime a dozen. Moreover, one interesting subplot involving a young local pastor and his interaction with Hera (in a neat little scene where she is startled in her room when he starts unzipping his shirt, only to reveal he has an Iron Maiden tattoo on his arm) could have practically been the main plot of the storyline, since the main story is too episodic and aimless at times. Another subplot, where three Norwegian Heavy metal players visit her home because they heard her music, could have been the real plot as well, yet it is also dropped since it appears only in the last 20 minutes of the film. The most was achieved out of the leading actress, excellent Thora Bjorg Helga, who convincingly transverses from one state of mind to another.
Grade:++
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