The Case for Norse Love

It is rare that I go to a movie that I have heard or read almost nothing about, but with the main cineplexes offering fare that I had either seen, was not on at the right time, or was (in my opinion anyway) drivel, I turned to the Paramount, saw a write up that looked interesting, and plunged into a world of Norwegian relationships – or, at least, one of them.

Gone with the Woman (take a wild guess at what the poster for the film looks like) is described as a Nordic Amelie, though I think this is mainly a fairly lazy comparison to attract an English audience to a subtitled film, as the story telling is a lot more straightforward, if still oddball, and so could really be described as a romantic comedy – and even as I write that, I can see why the Paramount publicity machine did not. It’s about a mildly eccentric man who finds himself in a relationship with a fairly eccentric woman, and follows the development of that relationship across time, the country and the continent.

And it is amusing. An older gentleman, who (I think) spoke Norwegian as he seemed to get the jokes before the subtitles appeared on screen, found the film hilariously funny; whereas I found myself smiling on many occasions but not at the point of bursting into laughter. It is hard not to like the bug-eyed lead, described as "Him" on IMDB, who seems perpetually perplexed by the ways of women and of relationships and of life in general, and his nemesis/lover Marianne is charming and tangential in an occasionally infuriating, redheaded way. Of course, that is the male perspective of their personalities, and perhaps the NotKate has a completely opposite view.

While the opening scenes gave me a false idea of how well I could follow Norwegian (the t-shirts and labels and brief utterances were fairly easy to follow), I quickly lost my way when real dialogue began. I was surprised to recognise one of Him’s buddies, until I realised I had seen him in a Scandanavian film fairly recently: the awesome World War 2 epic Black Book by Paul Verhoven. Norway itself seemed a very cold place to be, no matter the season, though to be honest, the film was not really going for an Oscar for cinematography, so there were not that many scenes that glamourised the countryside anyway.

As this is a rom-com, there are all sorts of coincidences and chance encounters that lead to awkward situations and romantic liaisons, the characters all have idiosyncratic foibles, and most scenes are played for laughs rather than for emotional depth. But this is definitely a story from a guy’s perspective, with women shown as baffling and flighty creatures, and, for Him anyway (perhaps due to his swimming-toned physique), very direct.

It seemed a much longer film than the 90 minute running time – not in a bad way, just in a scenes-are-short-and-a –lot-happens way – so I definitely felt I got my money’s worth, though I chose not to try and re-traumatise the person from whom I purchased the ticket to the movie by having a fairly random conversation with her again about the merits of the film. I didn’t come out with any grand revelations about life or relationships, but definitely had an epiphany about the wonders of Norwegian cinema.

Verdict: If you like romantic comedies and don’t mind reading a lot, Gone with the Woman is definitely worth your while. It is definitely shown more from a man’s perspective (though whether that is from what a woman thinks a man’s perspective is or whether it is actually a man’s perspective makes my small brain hurt), but it is daft enough that nobody will mind and the film can just be enjoyed instead. 7.5 tara-ta-tas out of 10.