101 Reykjavík

Comedy

Victoria Abril	Lola
Hilmir Snær Guðnason	Hlynur
Hanna María Karlsdóttir	Berglind
Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir	Hófí
Baltasar Kormákur	<THORN>röstur
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson	Marri
Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson	Brúsi
Eyvindur Erlendsson	Hafsteinn
Halldóra Björnsdóttir	Elsa
Hilmar Jonsson	Magnús

Director	Baltasar Kormákur
Writer	Hallgrímur Helgason; Baltasar Kormákur

Sexy Spaniard Victoria Abril heats up the wintry city of Reykjavík in 101 Reykjavík. Icelandic slacker Hlynur (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) lives on welfare with his mother, leading a depressed and aimless existence. His mother invites her flamenco teacher, Lola (Abril), to live with them; while his mother is away for New Year's Eve, Hlynur and Lola have a drunken fling. But upon her return, Hlynur's mother tells him that she and Lola are lesbian lovers--and it soon comes out that she and Lola are going to have a baby together. 101 Reykjavík seems to be the contemporary Icelandic version of American movies of the 1970s like Five Easy Pieces, in which antiheroic characters struggle to make sense of a world that doesn't seem to have any place for them. The movie is a bit unfocused, but its urban malaise feels genuine, if not particularly new. Abril is delightful, as always. --Bret Fetzer