Review of Jar City

This is an excellent film; the washed out palette and grisly subject matter mean that it won't be a multiplex crowd pleaser, but it's well worth seeking out: the mystery is cunningly untangled, the themes are powerful and the characters well drawn. The wild Icelandic landscape looks like the surface of Mars - there are even smoking craters - and is used to great effect; often it's contrasted with banal interiors. The characters are a dour bunch - hey, that's Iceland - but the good guys are likable and idiosyncratic. One thing that really appealed to me was the way the film draws upon and updates the classic tropes of the Icelandic saga: a crazy warrior, family secrets, the sins of the fathers visited on the sons, etc. Overall, I would rank this as one of the best contemporary noir films.