"Reprise" (Fixern, 2006) is a Norwegian film by Danish-born director Joachim Trier (a distant relative of Lars). Not that I can distinguish the sounds of Danish from those of Norwegian. Definitely, the monologues and dialogue are subtitled in English, though there is a brief bonus feature showing how s common "loan-word," borrowed from English is in the movie. I had never realized we have an apologetic language, or that there could be any need for some other language to borrow "sorry"!

I've never been to Oslo and don't think I've ever seen any other movie in Norwegian.* I've seen many in Swedish, and a number of recent ones in Icelandic, though, and the pretentious, alienated youth portrayed in "Reprise" are not very different from the pretentious, alienated Icelandic youth (before their currency collapsed). Nor are they that different from pretentious, alienated American youth.

The group of schoolmates with whom the two aspiring writers Phillip (Anders Danielsen Lie) and Erik (Espen Klouman-Høiner) chum are quite obnoxious. Henning (Henrik Elvestad) and "Porno" Lars (Christian Rubeck) are particularly misogynst, too boot.

Those who thought the narration in Woody Allen's 2008 success d'estime "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" was obnoxious might find it relatively less obtrusive if they listened to "Reprise." The first half hour seems to be all omniscient narration, telling not showing. It eventually goes away, but returns in the last quarter hour. I guess it's "literary." Besides being ubiquitous as the start, much of it is in the conditional tense, telling what might have happened, then what did. The mix of flashbacks and might-have-beens makes the movie confusing, even with the heavy-handed narration. And this kind of literary, ironic narration keeps the audience at a distance from the characters who are mocked, however affectionately in the narration — as also in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."

The movie begins with Erik and Phillip sending off manuscripts. Erik's is rejected, Phillip's is published -- to some critical acclaim and modest sales.

Philip takes Kari (Viktoria Winge) to Paris and becomes psychotically obsessed with her. Erik and the mates pick him up when he is released from a mental hospital and Erik attempts to look out for his friend. Erik writes another manuscript which may or may not draw on Phillip's madness, while Phillip writes not at all.

Phillip takes Kari back to Paris, trying to exactly repeat the time when he thought they were happy there. Why she goes off with this unpredictable, indeed psychotic, man is a mystery to me. Love, I guess: that explains a lot of folly in movies and in life.

What I liked best about the movie was the reclusive older writer Sten Egil Dahl (Sigmund Sæverud), a character based on Tor Ulven. Dahl is the master both Phillip and Erik revere, who spent years in Paris and was a pal of the reclusive Maurice Blanchot (whose writings I have never read) and "noveau roman" novelist/film-maker Marguerite Duras (Hiroshima Mon Amour, The Lover). The two failed encounters are funny in a painful kind of way. The setup that leads to a real conversation is funnier and more physically painful (on a day that has not gone well for Erik...)

The scene in which Phillip visits Kari at work — telemarketing — is also notably good. And I think that Viktoria Winge is more interesting than either of the male leads.

There's some magic of Paris, too — defiintely in the plus column for the movie. Though there is not a love triangle, the look of the movie, even more than that of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" seems to have been influenced by "Jules et Jim" -- not by the kind of movies Marguerite Duras made or scripted.

And lots and lots and lots of closeups, some artily lit.

I kept wondering about Phillip alone in a very nice apartment: first, how could someone who has proven himself a danger to himself be left so unattended and second, who was footing the bills for rent and cigarettes? And maybe some food? Neither of these questions were answered in the "making of" featurette. There are also a dozen deleted scenes and a bizarre mix of trailers along with the already mention montage of uses of "sorry" -- not only in the script, but in muffed takes.

As in watching "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" I kept hoping that the ending would lift the movie up, but was ultimately disappointed by the uninspired endings of both movies. (Cristina was the would-be artist in that movie, Vicky the more grounded friend who is not trying to make art.)

* The leads in the Nowegian movie "Hamsum" speak Swedish and Danish. For all I know, Liv Ullman was speaking Norwegian in the movies she made with Ingmar Bergman

Recommended: Yes