Oslo. Anders (34) is in a rehab clinic to quit drugs. He goes to a river, holds a giant stone in his hands and dives to commit suicide, but then abrupts it. He goes to the city for a job interview for a magazine. Anders also visits his friend, Thomas, and tells him he is thinking of killing himself. Anders tries to call his ex-girlfriend Iselin, but she does not answer. He goes to a party where he drinks some alcohol and talks with a woman. At a bar, he meets two girls and goes with them and a friend to a swimming pool, but refuses to swim with them. At his home, Anders uses a needle to inject himself with heroin, and dies in bed.
"Oslo, 31 August" is a movie about suicide. All of its aspects are guided by this theme and thus it might prove too depressive and dark for certain viewers. It is deliberately crafted in an ascetic, bleak, grey, humorless and lifeless manner to bring this point across and show the state of mind of the troubled protagonist Anders, trapped in his own mental prison, contemplating about fatalism. The director Joachim Trier doesn't quite translate this trauma into great art, since there is too much empty walk and bland, disjointed moments that wreck the mood, even though such a 'confused' narrative might have been the point to show Anders' feeling of isolation and helplessness in the world. Trier uses aesthetic, though by now standard shots, such as close-ups, over-the-shoulder shots and shaky camera, to craft the rather thin story.
Some cryptic scenes do ignite a mystery. In the opening shots, Anders is seen next to a naked woman in bed, who is never seen again. Is it his ex-girlfriend, Iselin, for whom he longs for the entire film, but she never answers him? Is the encounter with friend Thomas, who has a wife and two kids, a subliminal statement for Anders' own sadness due to loneliness which causes his suicidal thoughts? As Anders says to Thomas while sitting on a bench: "If you're unsentimental about it, nobody needs me. Not really." One sentence can sometimes say more about a character than a whole hour of babble. One unusually amusing moment has Anders going to a job interview, as he subtly criticizes the editor for "intellectual articles on HBO TV series and video games", comparing it to "Samantha from "Sex and the City" seen through Schopenhauer". Most of the dialogue is banal and schematic, just there to fill in the blanks, but one of Anders' thoughts while in the park is outstanding and memorable, thinking about his parents: "They never taught me how to cook or build a relationship." This might be one of the clues to understanding the film: people are taught everything, but are almost never taught how to create inter-human relationships. The lack of these spiritual nutrients can sometimes cause equally as fatal consequences as physical deprivation.
Grade:++
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