The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This is I believe the first movie from Iceland that I saw. And it takes one to a very different atmosphere. That of farmers in the cold Icelandic conditions. The setting in the movie is great both with it's beauty and by contributing to the mood of the movie. It is a very depressing and grey movie but it has some special strength and beauty about it.The main actors do an amazing job by doing very realistic acting. One feels like one is really watching farmers living their daily lives and during a crisis. They show their emotions in a very unforced and raw way.The story and how much they need their sheep is an important piece that adds to the characters and the depth of their story. We see the love these men have for the animals and what a big part of their life it is. The ending is a very special scene, it ends in an abrupt way but the story that they were telling us is told to the end without us missing anything.

"After all, you two have not talked to each other for forty years. Why start now?" "Hrútar" is an Icelandic saga about two brothers - sheep-raiders - weathery and persistent. To a certain extent biblical, similar to Cain and Abel, or Esau and Jacob's fates. "Brothers don't necessarily have to say anything to each other – they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other." That's pretty much it. "Hrútar" is also a very fine and accurate composition of image, setting and atmosphere. And sounds from Atli Örvarsson.

The film is laconic, atmospheric, calm, cold, bright, beautiful, artistic drama about love and hate of two brothers. From the very first second this Icelandic breathtaking cold atmosphere is longing throughout the whole film till the last second. Without any doubts, people who are not used to this type of films, who are not used to spend time looking deeper for protagonists characters, for them it will look a bit slow, as the story line is developing slowly but all the developments are in details, short conversations. Each picture is saying something, as for example as one of the brothers is reading a book next to the Rams what shows how much he loves his animals and spends long time with them. Film almost does not contain close-ups, its always middle shots and wide shots. Especially the views of mountains are amazing. Music is originally written for the film what is the best choice as it fits perfectly the way it is, it makes look picture very deep and emotional. Director has used TV and a radio as a very good tool to show that world lives with global bad news but private life does not touch or interest anybody else. Main characters are absolute opposite. One is calm and quiet but another one is more active with temperament. They have not spoken for 40 years and film does not explain why, but I think that is the idea, they don't know themselves. Director clearly wants to show with this film that these situations are not the best and you should love your family members, as at the end they are the ones who you can trust. It somehow shows that these people are mirroring character of the animal they love. Stubbornness and careless. Any kind of unhappiness always brings something positive. As it happens to the brothers and shows that human being is much more important than anything else. For me personally it was very emotional and open ending just fascinated me. I would recommend this film to people who love unusual stories, dark and deep atmospheric environment and who would just like to think about what is priorities in their life as we all have it different....or the same?

I will not disagree with the substance of the reviews my fellow unpaid reviewers of IMDb have written; this is in fact, a touching film about stubborn men. I do however dispute that such a film has any place outside an art festival.Rams is the story of two icelandic brothers, Gummi and Kiddi (i kiddi you not), who have not spoke to each other for 40 years; the film makes it plenty clear that they resent each other (for whatever unknown reason), even going as far as one of the two shooting the other's windows out with a shotgun.After a yearly sheep pageant, with Kiddi's ram taking first prize, the jealous Gummi goes to inspect the ram, and he finds it has scrapie, a deadly disease similar to Mad Cow disease.Most of the rest of the film is the community's struggle with the impending loss of their sheep, which is understandable since sheep represent their only reason of living. During this struggle, there are attempts at reconciliation between the two brothers, which finally culminate in a brief ending where human emotion prevails.Right;I find this cookie cutter script to be far below my standard for Un Certain Regard prize material, and even though the film is reasonably well executed, there is not much to make it interesting enough to tie up one and a half hours of runtime. Sadly, it falls victim to the trailer test: cut off the film's ending, attach it to the trailer, and voilà' - you have most of the film's content in 3 minutes.I would not recommend Hrútar (Rams); the bland icelandic vistas are sure to impress the millionaires who preside of the Cannes festival, but are nothing special if you've been outside of the city in these last 30 years. The characters are simple, the plot is minimalistic, with nothing to fill in. If you are looking for a burst of human emotion, you'll have to sit through an entire film of 90 minutes for what you could have gotten from a spoilered review.Not surreal, not touching, not visionary, my final vote for Rams : 5/10