Wow! Such a good movie.

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

Absolutely Fantastic

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

White Night Wedding follows the events in the life of Icelandic, ex-professor, Jón on the eve and on the morning of his wedding; his bride is a beautiful, young woman, once his student and 18 years his junior. The mother of his bride-to-be vows to call off the wedding if he will not pay her the funds he promised to ensure her permission to construct a golf course on her property. Meanwhile, throughout his preparations for the ceremony, Jón reflects on fragments of memories from his previous marriage to Anna, an artist who suffered from mental illness. During the course of these two days, he contends with bitter recognitions of his true character and his role in the events that ultimately led to the demise of his first marriage and his first wife's suicide; only the love of his new bride, who maintains a stubborn faith in his goodness, can prevent his attempts at self-destruction. The film skillfully conveys themes of human frailty and redemption, utilizing moments of tragedy and humor. The film begins with the first of many flashbacks Jón has – the shots each yellow, aged hue to show contrast with the present events, which are clear and sharp. He sees Anna.Deeply depressed, due to both her mental condition and the tenuous state of her marriage, Anna had requested that Jón resign from his position as university professor in Reykjavik and move with her to her home, the island of Flatey, hoping they might make a fresh start. The island has only one road and few inhabitants (Wikipedia, "Flatey,Breiðafjörður"). One of the inhabitants is Börkur, who convinces Jón to invest in his plans for a golf course spanning the length of the island. The owners of the guesthouse on the island, a husband and wife,own property on which Börkur hopes to build, so the two men approach them, and Börkur promises his partner will pay them rent for the property until the course is completed. In his business dealings with the couple, Jón encounters their daughter, Þóra, a student from one of his literature classes; their flirtatious interactions are preferable to the ramblings of his manic-depressive wife, and soon, he is spending night after night in Þóra's company. Anna sees the two on a walk and suspects that Jón is falling in love; she begs him to spend his time with her and end his visits to the guesthouse, but he insists he has business to attend to, and she is unable to dissuade him from going.One evening, in the company of the island's priest, whose compassion for Anna's mental condition makes him an attentive neighbor, Anna witnesses Jón making love to Þóra in the grasses just outside their home. Broken by the knowledge that she no longer has her husband's love, Anna rows out to sea in a leaking boat and drowns. These memories flash periodically through Jón's mind, producing deep feelings of guilt and doubt about his upcoming marriage to the young woman for whom he betrayed his wife. His self-hatred grows as he convinces himself of his sole responsibility for his wife's death, and he becomes convinced that his marriage to Þóra will eventually lead her to great unhappiness and, perhaps, a similar fate. He feels he is undeserving of love. These feelings are only reasserted by Þóra's mother, who has waited roughly a year for Jón to pay her the rent she feels she is due; she constantly berates him and her daughter for his negligence, convinced he will never repay (which is entirely true). She threatens to call off the wedding altogether, putting immense pressure on her daughter and unknowingly promising to relieve Jón of the guilt that builds as the wedding approaches. He hopes to escape. His father-in-law, a drunk with disappointed ambitions, comes to Jón's aid, providing him the money necessary to cover the rent his wife demands. However, Jón passes out after a night of drinking with his friends in the yard. When he wakes,the money has been blown away by the wind, though he never seems to reach this realization, possibly hoping he would not have to pay his debt, which would effectively put a stop to the wedding, as his mother-in-law promised. Just before the wedding belatedly begins, Þóra and her father see that Jón is just outside the church in the adjacent cemetery, looking on Anna's grave. The ceremony starts – and abruptly stops, when the groom pulls the bride outdoors to call the wedding off,confessing to her his guilt in Anna's death and attempting to convince her of the impending doom that would await her were they to marry. Distraught, she argues with him; her father soon joins her, and the rest of the congregation files out to watch the drama unfold. He walks to the shore, steps into a leaking canoe, and attempts to end his life as Anna had; but Þóra swims out to him, struggling against the weight of her gown, and desperately assures him that he is good and has her love unconditionally. The priest is carried to where they stand, and with something of exasperation and relief, Jón relents, and the two are married. Jón finds the happiness and redemption in his marriage; but his new wife appears restless, unhappy, and, possibly, unfaithful by the film's conclusion. Human frailty is reaffirmed. Jón represents the human condition – simultaneously fallible and hopeful. He betrays his wife to find redemption in life but finds it instead in his commitment to his new wife. At first, he refuses happiness, punishing himself for the mistakes of his past, his failure to love his wife. What saves him is the love he receives from Þóra. However, it seems he can't escape karma, and at the conclusion of the film, he has, in a sense, filled the role of Anna as the loving spouse, and Þóra appears to be looking for love elsewhere; the irony is both comic and tragic.

Dare to dream!In White Night Wedding we meet a literature professor, Jon, who is preparing for his second marriage. The wedding is taking place on a small island called Flatey in Iceland that can only be visited by boat. Jon's soon to be wife, Thora, is one of Jon's former students and about half his age. They seem happy together, and everything should be set for a perfect wedding. However, it is not that simple, Jon has a couple of things he needs to take care of before the wedding can take place. He is in debt to Thora's mother, and she is threatening to call off the wedding unless Jon pays her. He is also haunted by memories of his first wife, Anna. In addition to this, he has to deal with his drunken best man.I believe the most important theme in this movie is dreams. Jon is in a stage of his life where he struggles to find purpose. He is suffering from his first marriage, he is not able to pay his dept to his future mother in law, and he has no job. Jon wanted to become a professor so that he could make a difference in the world; however, when he realized that his job was not what he pictured it to be, he decided to take a break from teaching. If Jon does not get his life together, he will end up as his future father in law, Lasus. Although Lasus is happy on the outside, his decision to sacrifice his dream of becoming an opera singer for marrying Sisi is clearly affecting him. I believe this represents the kind of suffering that Jon will inevitably have to suffer unless he gets his life back on track. At the end, Jon says, "If you're happy for more than ten minutes then you're an idiot." This statement emphasizes his awareness of having a dream and a goal to strive for. The director, Kormakur, did a phenomenal job representing Jon's memories of Anna in flashbacks throughout the movie. His way of jumping from the present to the past without warning the audience is an original way of portraying a story that is indeed built on the past. He dares to explore new effects that can make the story challenging to follow, but does it with such a perfection that the viewer wants more flashbacks to get a deeper understanding of Jon's actions.Other main themes in this movie are relationships and greed. We see a relationship that is falling apart in Jon's memories, a relationship with Thora that is insecure in Jon's present life, a forced relationship between Thora's parents, and a starting relationship between Borkur and Mathildur to mention a few. Greed is represented in Sisi. All she cares about is money, and she is determined to get back the money Jon borrowed to build a golf course. Sisi's greed is contrasted in Lasus and Jon whom are not motivated by money at all. The location chosen for this movie is a great representation of Icelandic culture. The idyllic climate and unpopulated atmosphere on Flatey confirms my stereotypic Icelandic environment. Also the acting in White night Wedding is phenomenal. The emotions brought to life are so natural and honest that you fall in love with the characters one by one. Borkur's passion, Mathildur's honesty, the priest's anger, and Jon's fare are some of the emotions that will bring the viewer on an emotional roller-coaster. I recommend this movie to everyone that has some interest in Nordic film. The themes of dreams, relationships, and greed are themes we can all relate to, and you will at some level be able to relate to the situations that occur in the White Night Wedding. Kormakur is a world-class director who is not afraid to explore new methods to create movies. Let the actors charm you and let the director challenge your mind. This movie is worthy of all its awards. Dare to see it!

As the film opens we watch a bride and a groom exchanging wedding vows. At a crucial moment, a cellular phone rings. It belongs to Jon, the groom, who excuses himself to answer. The call is from his parents, who seem to be lost and want directions. We suddenly realize it is not the real thing, but a rehearsal for the event.The action takes place in a small island off the coast of Iceland. Jon, a former college professor, has escaped to this isolated spot after being fed up with his life. He came with Anna, an artist, with whom he has been living. Anna shows signs of depression, or perhaps another affliction that keeps her emotionally apart from Jon.One of Jon's students, Thora, arrive with a group of friends in Flatey. She has ties to the island. Her parents own the main store. It appears she was always attracted to her teacher, who is about twenty years her senior. Their affair plays heavily into Anna, who becomes even more despondent, leading ultimately to her own demise.Director Baltasar Kormakur, whose "The Sea" made an impression, is at it again. The film is not exactly easy to sit through. The narrative may confuse his audience, but we realize there are two situations taking place at different times. The film was co-written by the director and Ogaful Egilsson. The creators tried to give the film a lighter pace, what with the idea of the golf course running through one small island into Flatey and different holes running among the residential area. The result is a film that needs to be viewed with an open mind because Mr. Kormakur has proved worthy of our attention. The Icelandic cast does justice to the director's intentions.

After seeing this film, I wanted to see it again. The characters were so complicated. There was the middle aged professor, who had grown weary of his mentally ill wife and had fallen for a young student of his. There was his friend, a big oaf and church organist, who had never found true love in his life. There was the repressed priest, who was a step away from realizing that he had found the wrong calling. There were the future in-laws. The father of the bride is a working man, who has the voice of Luciano Pavrotti, and regrets he never tried to be a great tenor. There is the cynical and jealous mother of the bride, whose main reason for hating her future son-in-law is that he never has repaid a debt that he owes.This is all on an island in northern Iceland. It is a small island where everyone knows everyone else's dirty laundry, yet somehow fools still believe that they can hide their lives. There are the tourists from all over, who come to this island where there is basically nothing. Still, to scare up tourism, the locals foolishly believe that they can advertise the place as a tourist mecca. The groom and his childhood friend dream of the money that they will make when they build their golf course (basically, teeing off from the a rock out in the water).The movie is sad. The professor groom really hurt his wife, driving her to suicide by bringing his bride to be to the island for a wedding. In his perverse guilt, the groom believes that somehow he will bring peace over his adultery and abandonment of his wife. While not as good as The Sea, this is still a delightful movie that is filled with good witticism.