Festival
Cold Fever
(U.S.-Icelandic-German-Danish)
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Atsushi Hirata - Masatoshi Nagase
Jill - Lili Taylor
Jack - Fisher Stevens
Siggi - Gisli Halldorsson
Laura - Laura Hughes
Grandfather - Seijun Suzuki
Psychic Girl - Katrin Olafsdottir
(English, Japanese and Icelandic dialogue)
Atsushi (Masatoshi Nagase, from "Mystery Train") yearns to spend his week's paid vacation in sunny Hawaii to escape the Japanese winter. Instead, duty calls , and he flies to Iceland to perform a memorial service at a remote spot where his parents died almost seven years earlier.
From the word go, the trip turns into hell on wheels. Arriving in a blizzard, he mistakenly climbs on a tour bus and gets taken to some hot springs. Cabbing back to Reykjavik, he's forced to hitch a ride on a truck when his driver stops off to perform in a nativity play. At his hotel, he meets a ditzy psychic who sells him a car to start his trek.
The journey, through otherworldly snowscapes, is as weird as the people he meets en route, including a young woman who photographs funerals (Laura Hughes), an argumentative pair of Yanks who've stepped straight out of a Quentin Tarantino movie (Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens), and a bunch of Icelandic cowboys who organize country-music evenings at a tiny bar. Grounded by the weather, Atsushi accepts an offer from a crusty old local, Siggi (Gisli Halldorsson), to make the final leg on horseback.
Despite its Japanese protag, and the oddball idea of having a tiny, edge-of-the-world country observed through Eastern eyes, the pic has much in common with "Children of Nature," from its theme of a return to emotional roots to its evocation of a mystical world. Through the nicely etched relationship between Atsushi and Siggi in the movie's third act, the point is made that there's actually a lot in common between their two cultures.
The conclusion -- that Atsushi has journeyed "to a place that can't be found on any map"-- is hardly earth-shaking for a road movie, but the final scenes have a moving simplicity as the Japanese man performs his simple ceremony by the snowy banks of a remote river.
Nagase is excellent as the initially bemused but finally accepting Atsushi, and handles his English dialogue generally smoothly. As a kind of Sesame Street Bonnie & Clyde, Taylor and Stevens have fun with their characters, and perk up the movie's central section just when repetition starts to set in. Vet Icelandic thesp Halldorsson is just right for the movie's more sympathetic final stage.
Pic is visually alert, with the screen suddenly bursting from a 1.66 aspect ratio (for the Japanese scenes) into a stunning 2.35 on the first sight of snow-covered Iceland. Lensing by Fridriksson's business partner Ari Kristinsson is consistently eye-catching, with understated, ethereal accompaniment by composer Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson.
Though titles on the U.S. lead-produced pic are in English, the original Icelandic title, for the record, is "A koldum klaka."
Camera (color, widescreen), Ari Kristinsson; editor, Steingrimur Karlsson; music , Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson; production design, Arni Poll Johansson; costume design, Maria Olafsdottir; sound (Dolby SR), Kjartan Kjartansson; assistant director, Maria Sigurdardottir; second unit camera, Halldor Gunnarsson. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 12, 1995. (Also in Edinburgh Film Festival.) Running time: 86 MIN.
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