Jar City
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Metascore
75 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 6 Critics What's this?

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  • Summary: While a desperate, young father tries to find out what led to the death of his five-year-old girl, Inspector Erlendur investigates the murder of an elderly loner in a run-down basement flat. The inspector and his crew don't have much to go by in the investigation, but a photograph of a young girl's grave gives them a lead. They discover that many years ago, the victim was accused, though not convicted, of horrible crimes. Did the old man's past come back to haunt him? As Erlendur reopens this very cold case, he follows a trail of unusual forensic evidence, uncovering secrets that are much larger than the murder of one old man--with clues knit into the genetic bloodline of an entire country. (Blueeyes Productions)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    80
    Comic, disturbing and affecting by turns, and often all at the same time. Its funniest scenes are also its most unsettling.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    80
    Jar City is chilly and cerebral but also morbidly and powerfully alive to grossness and physicality.
  3. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    75
    Eventually, some mysteries become clear, but Kormákur's attempts to be crafty are too often clumsy, and the movie's unmotivated time leaps are close to a cheat.
  4. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    75
    The story, based on a best-selling novel, has familiar overtones; but Kormakur overcomes them with stylish direction - Iceland's natural beauty looks great - and a gripping performance by Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson.

See all 6 Critic Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Nesbitt10
    9
    An intelligent, engaging, multi-layered storyline that blends strained family relations, unsolved murders, and infuses some icelandic customs keeping the viewer captivated from beginning to end. Despite the lack of shock value, the film maintains a consistant sense of suspense throughout. "Jar City" is chilly and cerebral but also morbidly and powerfully alive to grossness and physicality. At home one evening Detective Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) tears into his customary sheep's head with his fingers, munching an eyeball while he reviews a case file. It's at once grotesque, sensual and strangely tender, all words that might equally describe this strange and absorbing movie.
    Director Baltasar Kormákur elegantly churns out a first-rate mystery by dressing it with organic cinematography and a score reminiscent of eerie Gregorian chants. But his best move is a focus on an unlikely secondary character - Iceland itself. He wisely employs this unique, almost otherworldly qualities of its setting--presented as both beautiful and threatening. The cinematography is simply stunning, truly enhancing the ambience to an ominous storyline and landscape. In 1974, a young Icelandic girl dies at the hands of a murderer, and the crime was never solved. In present day, the aged and exhausted detective Erlendur begins to investigate a link between that notorious unsolved crime, and the unrelated homicide of a local criminal years after the fact. Erlendur has a difficult private life, his wife has passed away, and he has a pregnant daughter Eva Lind (Agusta Eva Erlendsdottir) who is a drug addict and roams the streets. Meanwhile, Örn (Atli Rafn Sigurdarson), an employee at a DNA-mapping lab, struggles with the death of his own daughter, who suffered from a brain tumor. In time, the two men's lives will intersect in a myriad of ways that neither can even begin to foresee -- and the motivation for Holberg's original crime will become resoundingly clear.
    "Jar City" turns out to be intricate and pointed, conjuring a haunting, satisfying puzzle out of violence and chaos. The murder, of an old man named Holberg, opens up a nest of older crimes and brooding secrets. Erlendur finds himself investigating a possible rape from 30 years before and unraveling a tangled history of police corruption and petty brutality. What it all has to do with Holberg is no more clear to the audience than it is to the detective. But Erlendur's combination of bluntness and analytical acumen informs Mr. Kormákur's storytelling technique, making "Jar City" an unusually forceful and thought-provoking thriller. "Jar City" (or Mýrin), is adapted from Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason's 2000 best-seller, "Tainted Blood."    … Expand

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