Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46658 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-23
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Amazon.com
An achingly beautiful film, Aberdeen has an outrageously sentimental premise: Kaisa (Lena Headey) is asked by her fatally ill mother (Charlotte Rampling) to bring her estranged father Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård,) to visit before her mother dies. Kaisa finds Tomas--a jobless drunk--at his home in Norway, and basically drags him on a road trip back to Scotland, over the course of which they're forced to grapple with their past. This could be a recipe for maudlin sap, but instead--thanks to sharp incisive writing, unexpected characters, and performances that encompass humor, brutally honest self-destructive behavior, and subtle gentleness--Aberdeen is bracing, constantly surprising, and deeply engaging. The entire cast (including the always solid Ian Hart, of Backbeat and Hollow Reed) is incredibly good. Highly recommended. --Bret Fetzer

Review
Ravishing... harsh but strangely lyrical. The near-perfect cast has talent to burn. --Village Voice

Customer Reviews

performance driven
Stellan Skarsgard seems uncannily gifted at pulling off any kind of role asked of him. His range is astounding, but no more so than here in this small, probably little seen gem in which he plays an unemployed drunk who cannot get through a day without getting completely hammered, not wanting to face the realities of his life, apparently. He is, however, jolted back into reality when his estranged daughter Kaisa shows up at his doorstep in Norway insisting that he must accompany her to Scotland to visit her mother and his ex-wife (an always skillful Charlotte Rampling, even in smaller roles), who is dying in hospital. Kaisa is an intelligent, sarcastic businesswoman who, despite sharp tongue and tough exterior, has plenty of her own demons, which certainly helps her match her sarcastic, bitter, drunk father measure for measure when she has to. He agrees to go with her, but getting there turns out to be a gargantuan task when he won't stay sober long enough to fly; they must take a ferry, and Kaisa, impatient by nature, has to take command and babysit this giant drunk lump. She tries to keep it together, be different from him (unsuccessfully, as she too succumbs to a chemical path). Her frustration and the uneasy relationship between them is palpable, and both actors imbue their characters with equal parts strength and vulnerability without making the audience feel sorry for either of them. Though it seems in the end that they are not who they think they are, they still turn out to be two sides of the same coin-stubborn, self-destructive individuals adrift in the world, who remain bound together by their sameness. The sheer drama-ugly, pathetic human drama-that ensues as the girl tries to transport her father is bitter and realistic. The question remains why he decides to make a monumental sacrifice for her at the end? Because he feels obligated or because he knows, whatever blood ties they may have, they are in fact the only two people who understand each other?

A movie I won't quickly forget...
If you like independent and/or foreign films in general, I think you'll really like this film. The director says (in an interview on the CD) that Hollywood would not hire him to direct an action film and that's fine -- and that his films reflect his Norwegian character (restrained, among other things, unless alcohol is involved).

This film deals with addiction and a fractured family. Kaisa, a young woman successful in a career but estranged from her father and not seeing much of her mother, gets a call from her mother. She's in the hospital in Aberdeen (Scotland -- this is a town connected with North Sea oil drilling) with cancer, and doesn't have a lot of time left. She wants Kaisa to find her father (in Norway -- he works on oil rigs) and bring him to her. Kaisa reluctantly flies to Norway to retrieve her father. He is a heavy drinker -- very heavy drinker -- and not the easiest person to escort back to Scotland. Flying turns out to be not-an-option, so they end up taking a ferry and then driving. As the trip from Norway to Aberdeen unfolds (and this is most of the film), their characters and relationship are unfolded for us. Kaisa doesn't have it as nmuch together as she first appears to, and her father isn't exactly as hopeless as she thought, either.

Kaisa is riveting, as is her father -- and a young man they meet along the way who helps them. The acting is outstanding. At first the film seemed odd and I wasn't sure what I thought of it, but as time passed, I became engaged with the characters and their struggle.

My only comment is that the drive from London to Aberdeen doesn't take nearly as much time as they seem to take in this film, even taking into account some delays. There were a few other points that left me with questions about the script. I'd chalk it up to literary license and it didn't detract at all from the film.

Painful, touching film about bruised family relationships
The situation: Kaisa, one tough lady (for good reason, as the film makes clear later on) is asked by her dying mother to bring her father back for one last visit. Kaisa has her work cut out for her, because her father is a difficult case- drunk, surly and bitingly sarcastic to boot. He's more than an equal match for Kaisa...and that's saying a lot.
This situation could make for simple sentimental pap in the hands of the wrong director but here it turns out to be a very believable and watchable movie - although it won't be to everyone's taste. The relationship and years of bad feelings between Kaisa and her father lead to moments which are sometimes painful to watch. If you want a fun, escapist movie, far engaged from hard reality, don't pick this one up. But if you're willing to watch a movie with some bite to it, you should find this one well worth watching. An extra bonus: The music is absolutely wonderful, not the sort of usual background music that tries to tweak the viewer's emotions.