Phoenix

Phoenix stars Ylva Thedin Bjørkaas as Jill, an affable 13-year-old who has essentially assumed the role of caregiver for her younger brother (Casper Falck-Løvås’ Bo) – as the pair’s mother (Maria Bonnevie’s Astrid) is an irresponsible alcoholic with little interest in providing a safe, comfortable home for her children. It’s familiar stuff that is, especially at the outset, employed to stale, unmoving effect by director Camilla Strøm Henriksen, as the filmmaker delivers a lugubriously-paced narrative that contains few overtly engrossing attributes or sequences – which is a shame, ultimately, given that Henriksen has certainly elicited impressive performances from Bjørkaas and her costars. And although the movie picks up slightly in the wake of an unexpected twist, Phoenix continues to suffer from a lack of momentum that consistently holds the viewer at arms length – with one’s ongoing efforts at subsequently working up interest in or sympathy for Jill’s plight generally falling flat. It’s clear, too, that the continuing presence of oddly (and incongruously) surreal elements diminishes the picture’s overall impact, and it is, in the end, rather difficult to label Phoenix as anything more than a well-intentioned yet frustratingly underwhelming piece of work.

** out of ****