Sons of Norway

Sons of Norway follows circa 1970s adolescent Nikolaj (Åsmund Høeg) as he adopts a punk lifestyle after his mother passes away – with the movie detailing the impact that Nikolaj’s transformation has on both himself and on his grieving father (Sven Nordin’s Magnus). Filmmaker Jens Lien has infused the early part of Sons of Norway with a briskly-paced and lighthearted sensibility that proves impossible to resist, with the affable atmosphere perpetuated by the likeable performances and the emphasis on Nikolaj’s relationship with his hippie parents. And while some of this stuff is admittedly quite funny (eg Magnus forbids Nikolaj from drinking cola because it’s “the black blood of capitalism”), Lien finds himself unable to elevate the material above that of a fairly typical coming-of-age drama. The underwhelming atmosphere is certainly not helped by the tediously episodic narrative, as it eventually does feel as though the film’s engaging sequences are outweighed by those of a needless variety (eg Magnus and Nikolaj’s trip to a nudist colony). It is, as such, not surprising to note that the movie fizzles out substantially as it passes the one-hour mark, with Lien’s ongoing (and fruitless) struggles at filling the padded-out running time ensuring that Sons of Norway finally concludes with a whimper. (An amusing one-minute cameo from Johnny Rotten towards the end arrives far too late to make any real difference.)

** out of ****