Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir) is a mother, experiencing the ups and downs of her work as a modern artist. Part of that work is having to wine and dine dumb gallery owners who’ll just turn her hard work down. Her ex, Magnus (Sverrir Gudnason), is a fisherman, probably one of the more mainstream industries in Iceland. He has his own minor annoyances in his job too like coworkers doing locker room talk. Despite their separation and their opposing values, they try to raise their three children, especially the oldest, Ida (Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir). I already wrote about their hurdles but the work they do is somehow a fruitful reward in itself. This is the basic gist of Hlynur Pálmason‘s The Love That Remains, the dumbest best film.
I call The Love That Remains dumb (compliment) because of its Looney Tunes kind of gallows humour. Bad things happen to side characters and sometimes main characters, all part of the film’s complex tapestry. Maybe I had some expectations because of Palmason’s earlier and grittier films like A White, White Day. Maybe something sinister was going to happen to this family even if the vibes were at first good. But the film continued to be a warm hug, its sound design enveloping and immersing its audience. And yes, the angles and the camera movements are more dynamic but it evokes Ozu. Many shots are perfect in an organic way, depicting a family through the bad, the good, and the weird.
- Rated: 15
- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Release Date: 9/4/2025
- Directed by: Hlynur Pálmason
- Starring: Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Saga Garðarsdóttir, Sverrir Gudnason
- Produced by: Anton Máni Svansson, Katrin Pors
- Written by: Hlynur Pálmason
- Studio: HOBAB, Snowglobe, Still Vivid
