You may wonder about the rating - I didn't check why, but a drama usually does get lower ratings, because ... you know it's more story driven. This is both story driven and character driven though ... and there is a fair amount of sex/intercourse too. Which includes nudity and some violence - just making sure you are aware of that.

The acting is really good and while you may not feel any love for the characters or their behaviour (no pun intended),it is quite the intriguing story it tells us here. We know this is something that shouldn't be happening ... but we also know that certain things seem impossible to avoid ...

I saw this in the cinemas around the time it opened, where there were about three other people present - perhaps an indication of this film's lack of an audience. Charlotte is a young dancer without a clear direction who on a whim falls in love with her half-brother. The films turns into a sister/brother love drama, Anne Sewitsky's latest film has a nice soundtrack, cinematography and at times great locations and scenery from wintery Oslo.

But that's where all the positives end. This rather rosy incest fantasy goes horribly wrong inn the execution. The acting from the lead and co-stars is uneven and awkward, ranging from amateurish play by boyfriends and friends to forced 'happy' montages that strike me as inherently fake. Not to blame them; actors' aren't really given much to work with; the script and dialogue is inconsistent and so full of trite clichés, sentences and awkward pauses that makes a Jon Fosse play seem a dazzling circus show by comparison.

The old need for 'suspense of disbelief' comes into play here. Like other Sewitsky films this one too offers no back story, explanation or justification for any of the actions of the main characters. The film also fails to offer up any reasons for Charlotte's troubled background rather than old tropes like the dying dad or the uncaring mom. Dialogue gives us no clues, and characters never interact in any meaningful way. The result is something that tries to play like a meaningful drama but ends up like a disconnected, awkward black comedy, somewhat a cliché of Scandinavian cinema.

The movie is profoundly confusing on every level. The worst scenes are the sex scenes; prolonged and pointless; failing to achieve anything interesting with characters or plot.

As a result this is a film with a little style but no substance.

The camera is constantly focused on the face of the heroine who repeats the same facial ticks and expressions no matter what the mise en scene or part of the "plot" is. It's thus hard to work out what the characterisation is supposed to convey in terms of the emotions and psychology of the character. Same goes for all the other characters. Interesting that the only two convincing scenes involve secondary characters, the ill dad in hospital and the best friend telling our heroine what she really feels about the friendship. The plot is contrived, the sex scenes verge on the sadistic and voyeuristic and the whole thing is just messy and unsure of where it's heading. The relationship between mother and daughter only hinted at, never fully fleshed out. One of those movies one watches compulsively because it's so bad. Very unlike stuff that normally comes out of Norway. Three stars for the gorgeous cinematography of the snowy urban scapes.