Thicker Than Water (2006)

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I went to the premier of this film here in Iceland, as I was lucky enough to be a extra in the wedding scene. I thought it was really awful and I would have walked out of there if I wasn't waiting for my scene. The thing that I found the worst was the fact that it ends with the kid finding out. They must've been able to come up with a final scene better than that. Secondly, the film dragged on forever. I don't mind long films, but enough is enough. And they thinned it out with sub-plots and meaningless scenes which made me loose all story lines.on the bright side, the actors were good, and the filming wasn't all bad either.Icelandic reviews say it's great "compared to other Icelandic films". that's just wrong. why compare Iceland to Iceland. shouldn't they be comparing Iceland to other nations. or did they not find a good nation to compare to?I'm not saying you shouldn't go and see this film, I'm just saying my opinion. There are other films you can watch that are far better. and to top it off, they spelled my name wrong. if you watch the credits and see Erla Harðardóttir, think of me.

I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Árni Ásgeirsson makes an impressive directorial debut with his first feature length film. Ásgeirsson is Icelandic born but he is a graduate of the Polish National Film School where several notable filmmakers came out of including director Roman Polanski. He also co-wrote the screenplay along with Denijal Hasanovic and Jón Atli Jónasson. The story is set in Reykjavik as successful optometrist Pétur (Hilmir Jonsson) and his wife Asta (Margrét Vilhjálmsótter) are expecting their second child. Their 10 year old son Örn (Aaron Brink) has a fainting spell during a soccer game and is taken to a hospital where routine blood test are done leading to the discovery that Pétur is not his biological father. Pétur walks out on the family and checks into a hotel room to contemplate his once solid marriage that is now crumbling. He takes to heavy drinking and initiates an affair with his secretary Anna (Laufey Elíasdóttir) who is almost 20 years his junior. His brother-in-law sympathizes with him but his sister his disgusted with his new found life. A strong cast and story with some comic relief to offset the brooding drama. Skillful cinematography from Tuomo Hutri. I liked this story and will look forward to see more from director Ásgiersson. I would give this an 8.0 out of 10.

Even though this film has a great cast and good acting it is still too predictable and slow moving. The lack of ability to communicate within a marriage, although frustrating, is predictable. The husband finds out that their child cannot possibly be his own so his wife must have slept with someone else and never told him he was not the father of their child. The husband gets mad and leaves the house for sometime to contemplate what he should do about this situation. Instead of talking to his wife and working things out he decides to sleep with another woman and start an affair with her. She is much younger and the two are not suited for each other, it is obviously an emotional outlet so he does not have to face the challenges of his marriage. Since he has developed a relationship with the child he thought was his son, this wins out over everything else and he ends up back with his wife, hence the title of the film The ending was predictable. The emotional turmoil the family goes through, including the wife and son, is all predictable. The story takes too long to be told. It would have been less predictable if the husband had not started an affair and actually talked to his wife and child during his emotional crisis.