Under the Tree

Name: Under the Tree
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: July 6, 2018
Duration: 89 min
Rating: 76
Cast: Dóra Jóhannsdóttir, Edda Björgvinsdóttir, Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir, Selma Björnsdóttir, Sigrídur Sigurpálsdóttir Scheving

2018

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 19 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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6.7

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6.7	Your Score
6.7	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 6 Ratings

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Under The Tree

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Movie Details & Credits

Not Rated

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 6, 2018

Starring: Dóra Jóhannsdóttir, Edda Björgvinsdóttir, Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir, Selma Björnsdóttir, Sigrídur Sigurpálsdóttir Scheving, Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson, Þorsteinn Bachmann

Summary: When Baldvin & Inga’s next door neighbors complain that a tree in their backyard casts a shadow over their sundeck, what starts off as a typical spat between neighbors in the suburbs unexpectedly and violently spirals out of control.

Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson

Genre(s): Drama, Comedy

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 89 min

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Awards & Rankings

99	#99 Best Movie of 2018

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Original-Cin - Jim Slotek

Jul 19, 2018

Though Under the Tree falls firmly into satire, it is not a comedy with a lot of laughs. It is more an absurdist tragedy, with cringe-worthy moments. Read full review

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) - Brad Wheeler

Jul 19, 2018

This film moves from black satire to a horror-thriller so smoothly you don’t even realize it’s happening – like the proverbial slow-boiling frog. Grim stuff, gloriously so. Read full review

The Playlist - Kyle Kohner

Jul 19, 2018

With suburban normalcy ultimately derailed by a suitably cynical, albeit humorous resolution, the final actions these neighbors take contribute to a far more meaningful message regarding the unsympathetic tendencies of humanity. Moreover, the measures taken by these feuding characters underlie the ruinous ways in which grief, hysteria and mental illness as a whole continue to be approached by society, especially by our own family members and neighbors. Read full review

Variety - Guy Lodge

Jun 1, 2018

It has the escalating, claustrophobic structure of the darkest farce, but humor doesn’t pile up in Under the Tree so much as it bleeds out. Read full review

Washington Post - Ann Hornaday

Jul 10, 2018

This crafty sociological thriller, set amid the pristine townhouses and lawns of a quiet Reykjavik suburb, builds slowly but surely into a film that feels utterly of a piece with a much wider world. Read full review

Entertainment Weekly - Leah Greenblatt

Jul 5, 2018

By trading in all its intrigue and emotional subtleties for the gotcha moment it’s clearly been waiting for, Tree wins the battle but loses the war. Read full review

Slant Magazine - Chuck Bowen

Jul 2, 2018

Under the Tree boasts the lurid determinism of many acclaimed European films that spit-shine genre-film tropes with chilly compositions and fashionable hopelessness. Read full review

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User Reviews

Bertaut1

Aug 19, 2018

Nordic comedy is jet black, with its opacity often such that non-Nordic audiences are left asking "was that really a comedy?" Not necessarily because they didn't find it funny, but because they're not entirely sure how they were supposed to find it funny. In Iceland, the term used toNordic comedy is jet black, with its opacity often such that non-Nordic audiences are left asking "was that really a comedy?" Not necessarily because they didn't find it funny, but because they're not entirely sure how they were supposed to find it funny. In Iceland, the term used to describe this kind of comedy is "gálgahúmor" ("gallows humour"), and it's a style which is often lost on international audiences – often focusing on dark subjects which one wouldn't immediately recognise as comic. And so, with all of this in mind, we have Undir trénu.

Written by Huldar Breiðfjörð and Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, and directed by Sigurðsson, the film begins with Agnes (Lára Jóhanna Jónsdóttir) accusing her husband, Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson), of cheating. Although he denies it, she throws him out, and he returns to his parents, Baldvin (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Inga (Edda Björgvinsdóttir). Next-door live Konrad (Þorsteinn Bachmann) and his wife Eybjorg (Selma Björnsdóttir), who is closer in age to Atli than she is to Konrad himself. The two couples are in the midst of a passive-aggressive dispute concerning a large tree in Baldvin and Inga's garden, which is casting a shadow over Konrad and Eybjorg's sundeck. Baldvin is open to the possibility of trimming it, but Inga point-blank refuses.

All of this is set up within the first ten minutes, and what plays out for the rest of the film is a juxtaposition of the two main conflicts – that between Agnes and Atli on the one hand, and that between the neighbouring couples on the other – as each becomes more and more bitter. And this is essentially the film's bread-and-butter – a serious marital conflict contrasted with a farcical neighbouring conflict, with each commenting upon and informing the other; no matter how serious the dispute regarding the tree becomes, it is always tempered and rendered preposterous by the much more consequential issues playing out between Atli and Agnes. Likewise, no matter how acrimonious that conflict becomes, it is always called into relief by the comic elements in the dispute concerning the tree.

This is how a lot of gálgahúmor works – the serious and the absurd placed alongside one another so as to create a somewhat unrealistic milieu. A good example of this can be found in the opening scene. The film begins with Agnes and Atli going to bed, as Agnes puts in ear-plugs, and the sounds of a couple having sex can be heard on the soundtrack. The film then cuts to a shot of a couple in bed, with the sound bridging the cut, and letting the audience know this is the same couple heard in the previous scene. Except it isn't. Another cut reveals that some time has passed, and the couple in bed is actually a film Atli is watching on a laptop in the living room. Wearing headphones, he doesn't hear Agnes come in, and as he begins to masturbate, she asks him if he's watching porn. Slamming the laptop shut, he jumps up and denies it. However, he is unaware that the porn is now playing on the computer screen behind him, in full view of Agnes. All pretty funny up to this point. However, the farcical manner in which the scene has progressed thus far is undermined as Agnes realises he has been watching amateur porn, in which he is the star. The multiple misunderstandings and layered realisations, coupled with a well-handled manipulation of audience expectation (and an excellent example of an L cut being used thematically) render the scene farcical up until Agnes recognises Atli on screen.

Unfortunately, for a film with such a farcical plot, it's immensely predictable. About twenty minutes in, I guessed how it would end – I literally guessed what the last shot would be. It's also a little difficult to see what Sigurðsson is trying to say with the film. Part absurdist comedy-of-manners, part satire of first-world problems, there isn't a huge amount of substance here. Is the film offering up a commentary on the inherent pettiness that can come to dominate divorce proceedings, or is it more concerned with mocking the self-importance of middle-class suburbia and the attitude that an argument about a tree can be seen as more important than the breakup of a marriage?

Also, when the humour gives way to darkness, with the two conflicts dovetailing, and tragedy enveloping all six main characters, Sigurðsson doesn't handle the transition very well. Rather than allowing the material to become as unironically serious as he does, perhaps maintaining a comic through-line would have been more effective. Undir trénu lets the comedy drop away entirely, and although the last scene may be an attempt to share a wink with the audience, it comes on the back of a couple of scenes which weren't especially well integrated into the tone of the preceding narrative.

Overall, it's enjoyable enough whilst it lasts, but there isn't a huge amount of substance, and, in the long-term, it's not especially memorable.… Expand

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