Direction: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Country: Iceland
Blending Icelandic folk and family drama, Lamb doesn't measure up to the best of psychological thriller/horror films.
In his feature-length directorial debut, co-writer and director Valdimar Jóhannsson focuses on a married couple of farmers - Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) and Maria (Noomi Rapace) - living in an isolated mountainous region in Iceland. Apparently, they live in peace and quiet, but an unseeable turmoil afflicts their souls - they are unable to have children. That pain ceases when they adopt this bizarre newborn creature - half-lamb, half-human - as their own child. The hybrid living thing fulfills their lives in a freakish way, but their happiness is disturbed not only by the arrival of Ingvar’s sly brother, Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), but also by the ewe that gave birth to the creature.
As the absurdist story unfolds, you'll more likely to shrug than gasp with awe. The surreal elements set against the realism of the environment soon collapses and never rises above its premise. The only aspect I was truly impressed with was the arresting cinematography by Eli Arenson.
At the heart of the film's failure are the shortage of interesting twists, a lazy storytelling, the lack of allegorical energy, and a ludicrous conclusion. To me, this was an emotionally obtuse experience, ridiculous enough in its very existence.
Even showing signs that he may one day make a rich film combining key ingredients from Yorgos Lanthimos and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s universes, Jóhannsson wastes the chance of turning Lamb into something actually creepy or substantial.
