Under The Tree
ANDY’S RATING: ★★★ In cinemas on Friday
ICELANDIC film-maker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s first feature attracted the attentions of Hollywood where it was remade as Prince Avalanche, a comedy starring Paul Rudd.
I can’t imagine this pitch black satire travelling quite so well. The title refers to a tree growing in the suburban garden of retired couple Balvin (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Inga (Edda Björgvinsdóttir).
It’s a handsome tree, but their younger neighbours Konrad (Þorsteinn Bachmann) and Eybjorg (Selma Björnsdóttir), think it is blocking the sun and want it pruned.
But Inga, who is mourning the loss of a son, is no mood to compromise. Soon Balvin and Inga’s other son Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) finds himself involved. He’s just been kicked out of his flat by his wife after she discovered him hunched over an old girlfriend’s sex tape.
Both disputes spiral out of control at roughly the same time. This is all about clashing perspectives and violence erupting in seemingly genteel settings.
It’s too grim for belly laughs, but there are scenes I believe a younger reviewer may refer to as “OMG!!! moments”.
HUNGER Games, Ender’s Game, Divergent, The 5th Wave, The Maze Runner…
If you have seen any of the above, you’ll feel like you’ve already seen The Darkest Minds – a sci-fi where superpowered teens battle fascist grown-ups.
The only thing that marks it out from the rest of the “Young Adult” crowd is the alarming number of plot holes.
This time the story stops making sense before we even get to the inevitable love triangle.
As in Alexandra Bracken’s series of novels, we are in America in the very near future where an unlikely disease has killed off most of the children and bestowed the survivors with superpowers.
The government has reacted by herding them into concentration camps, where they are assigned a colour representing their particular power.
Greens have become instant maths whizzes, blues have telekinesis, oranges have Jedi mind control and reds can shoot fire out of the majority of their orifices.
The last two categories are considered so