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Aberdeen
First Run Features


8.8

based on 17 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 5 votes
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FILM:

The Beautiful Country

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Stellan Skarsgård, Lena Headey, Ian Hart, and Charlotte Rampling

A modern, raw, pitch-black comedy about a young woman who travels from Scotland to Norway to find her estranged, alcoholic father and bring him home. (First Run Features)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Kristin Amundsen Hans Petter Moland Lars Bill Lundholm (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Hans Petter Moland
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 23, 2002 Video: April 23, 2002 Theatrical: August 17, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	106 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Norway / Sweden / UK

Audience Award, Best Dramatic Feature Film, Hamptons International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

It could have done with fewer plot devices, but it is ultimately far more satisfying than countless less ambitious and risky films.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

It is difficult to watch, but it's also impossible to take your eyes off the screen. It does not blench at the things that Hollywood routinely blenches at: substance abuse, dying, family dysfunction, love.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Sumptuously hued in its emotional and visual tones, this drama is also a fairy tale, its plot contrivances beautifully justified by its minimalism.

Village Voice Leslie Camhi

Norway's hallucinatory, edge-of-the-world beauty imbues the story with a woozy, alcoholic haze and a sense of the marginal spaces into which the messiest aspects of private life are shoved.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

A film of rare beauty, lifted by some of the best acting you may see in any film this year.

Boston Globe Loren King

It is an uncompromising family tale, one that's dark but lyrical and moving in its rendering of the ties that bind even the most dysfunctional families, despite valiant efforts to destroy them.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's clean and transparent, with no movie director tricks. The characters, not the montages, speak the loudest.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Skarsgard and Headey deliver perfectly meshed lead performances in a small, beautifully acted film that will make you squirm.

Variety Eddie Cockrell

A humanistic, warts-and-all battle of wills between a dissolute father and an emotionally ravaged daughter.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Writer-director Hans Petter Moland (The Last Lieutenant, Zero Kelvin) has a fine eye for landscapes, but an even surer touch with actors.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Intelligent, moving and often beautifully photographed, Aberdeen boasts superb performances.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

A journey that goes from prosaic to existential. Director Hans Petter Moland's raw drama of father-daughter reconciliation features an excellent cast.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

In the end, grips us precisely because its actors are so utterly absorbed in their roles, so unfettered and nakedly expressive. This is the kind of acting we always look for, but rarely see.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Behind the narrative twists and contrived dramatic complications is a searing and scary look at dysfunction.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

Headey, Skarsgård and Rampling flesh these people out marvelously, bringing them fully to life. It's almost a pity: The more real they become, the less pleasant is the time we spend with them.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The characters, irritating as they can be at first, grow on you as they grow up.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's a raw, haunting experience.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Asenath F. gave it a9:
Dry and Dark, yet witty and amazing. Woman, all hopes for a life she enjoys get's talked into coming to see her dying mother, not knowing that she is dying. She also has to find her father, a drunk Scott, an dpull him along for the ride.

Chad S. gave it a 7:
"Aberdeen" answers the question, "Who makes the better companion on a road trip: an alcoholic or a cocaine addict?" You're probably better off with the alcoholic, even though the cocaine addict, by default, makes for better company. When Kaisa asks her father, "Why can't you always be like this," she probably isn't aware of the irony. We'd like to pose the same question towards Kaisa, because the sober version of this broken soul is a lot more tolerable than the foul-mouthed bitch we encounter at the beginning. When Kaisa warms up to her estranged father, it's because she's coming down from her cocaine high, but what's nicely understated, is that this change of heart is directly related to her dying mum. Because Kaisa is strung out on drugs half the time, "Aberdeen" never wallows in sentimentality like other films about dying parents.

Paul D. gave it a 9:
Harrowing and touching, with stellar performances by Skarsgard and Headley, and a fine supporting turn from Ian Hart.

Pam G. gave it a 10:
Excellent movie. Excellent , brilliant and funny actors.

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Aberdeen First Run Features

Aberdeen
First Run Features