Chasing The Wind (2013)

Directed by: Rune Denstad Langlo
Country: Norway

Movie Review: Rune Denstad Langlo’s sophomore fictional-feature, “Chasing The Wind”, was not skillful enough to arouse the same interest as the previous “North”(2009). The story follows Anna (Marie Blokhus) who lives in Germany and reluctantly returns to her small hometown ten years after a terrible accident that victimized her parents, in order to attend her grandmother’s funeral. The first minutes, without being much explanatory, make us anticipate family problems, which became more and more evident in conversations with her grumpy grandfather and her ex-boyfriend, for whom she still harbors strong feelings. The characters’ moods vary among anger, resentment, forgiveness, and ultimately understanding and acceptance of their fate. The problem comes from the fact that all these variations occur in too familiar tones, relying in a dragging pace and in a failed attempt to look poetic. The first real moments of some impact just arrived in its final moments with surprising revelations from Anna’s granddad, but they came too late to provoke us in a more acceptable way. The performances were forgettable and Langlo was never determined to leave his comfort zone, being the biggest responsible for the film’s pale temper. Aesthetically clean on visuals and with an unattractive original music by Ola Kvernberg, “Chasing The Wind” didn’t surpass the standard ways of storytelling.