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| Hilmir Snær Guðnason and Noomi Rapace in "Lamb" Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com |
The opening shot of director Valdimar Jóhannsson’s supernatural-horror film, “Lamb,” may be one of the most chilling of the year. We have a long take, point-of-view shot of something making its way across a field to a barn, unsettling us with its animalistic grunting. We arrive inside the barn, where we become more disturbed as the sheep look at whatever has entered their home, but we still don’t know what it is.
These haunting first minutes provide a perfect setup for the unnerving atmosphere into which we’re invited, and Jóhannson makes sure that from there, you won’t be able to tell where the movie is taking you.
On a farm in Iceland, María (Noomi Rapace) and her husband, Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason), live a quiet life and try to make it through day by day after the death of their infant daughter. When one of their sheep gives birth to a human/sheep hybrid, the couple decides to raise it as their own, but face unforeseen consequences.
Rapace and Guðnason provide emotional performances as a wife and husband who are experiencing an emptiness in their lives. The first third of the movie has very little dialogue for their characters, so Rapace and Guðnason have to rely on their facial expressions to convey what’s going through their minds as they go about their routines. After the lamb is brought into their home, Rapace and Guðnason make a fine transition into displaying the newfound happiness that they’re experiencing, a light in their lives that gives them a bigger purpose. The happiness that they exhibit evolves to a point where their characters are comfortable with the strange being that they’re raising, and this is effective in unsettling the audience with how accustomed they become to taking care of this odd creature.
The screenplay by Jóhannsson and Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson is a slow-burn narrative in the purest sense. After the opening, we’re taken through the couple’s daily life as they tend to their farm work and try to maintain their marital bond. Once they bring the newborn lamb into their family, the story then shifts to María and Ingvar doing what they can to care for it, presenting an examination them trying to be the parents that they never had the chance to be. It’s an unconventional family drama that has you wonder how long María and Ingvar can maintain this arrangement. And, when we arrive at the third act, the bigger picture carefully comes into play. During this and everything leading up to it, the movie subverted my expectations in some major ways, making the slow-burn all the more worth it.
The cinematography by Eli Arenson brings stunning imagery of the Icelandic landscapes. We’re given many shots of the lush, green fields and majestic mountains, and seeing these locales on a big screen offers a transportive experience that immerses us in this faraway place and evokes the folktale atmospherics of the story. With these shots, we not only see the beauty of this region, but also the intense isolation of the characters; and when some of the landscape shots frame the characters within these huge, open spaces, you’re given a perspective of how alone they are.
As a director, Jóhannsson offers enough understated drama as the couple takes their lives day by day, and he then adds a little bit of tension as Ingvar’s brother, Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), visits him and María and questions this responsibility that they’ve taken upon themselves. Aside from the character drama and some bits of unexpected humor, the disquieting nature of the story always assures that there’s a sense of horror lingering within the periphery of the narrative.
Thanks to the film’s strange, yet effective tone, and the way in which the story unfolds, “Lamb” is sure to pull the wool over your eyes.
Grade: A
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