Gritty Norwegian drama Uno announces the arrival of a major young talent on to the world stage. Aksel Hennie had already built a reputation for himself as a young actor to watch in his native Norway by the time he made this film – he plays a key role in Hawaii, Oslo, a film highly praised in these pages – but with Uno he announced that his skills as a writer and director were more than a match for his prodigious acting ability. Simply put Hennie can do it all, and do it all alarmingly well. Uno succeeds on every possible level. Written with precision, filled with devastating performances, and shot with a restless energy it is the sort of film that would have had Hennie proclaimed a prodigy, hailed in the press until he became a household name around the world, had he been an American rather than Norweigian. As it is he remains largely unknown outside of his own country but his directorial debut has been given a solid DVD release by TLA.
Hennie stars as David, a young man so overwhelmed by the demands of his family life that he has fled, both physically and emotionally. His father lies dying of cancer, breathing out his last in his own bed; his brother has Down’s Syndrome and requires constant attention; his mother simply needs him to step in and share the load. But instead David has fled, speaking to his family only when absolutely necessary and sleeping in their apartment’s basement storage locker. Rather than tending to his own family David has taken up with an adoptive one, the tight community of the gym where he works and spends his days. There he is trusted and valued, the owner treating him as a second son, and, most importantly, he has nothing to remind him of his father slowly dying at home.
But it is not long before David’s loyalties are tested. When his father takes what seems to be the final turn and is transported to hospital David runs to the gym to let them know he can’t come in and is caught up in a police sweep for illegal steroids. Netting a haul of drugs, cash and a gun the police take all the gym staff away and lock them in holding, leaning on them all to turn in the steroid dealer – the gym owner’s son Lars, who ironically is hoping to become a police officer. Desperate to return to his father’s side David must make a choice and when he does an already difficult situation becomes positively hellish.
An unflinching look at loyalty and betrayal, the strength of family and the difficult transition to adulthood, Uno bears many of the marks of genre film – chases, bloodshed, dog attacks, a strategically placed nail gun – but is at its heart a character study. With its focus on character and absolute refusal to play characters as types rather than full blooded people - even in the midst of the inevitable violence - as well as the heavy use of handheld cameras, gritty 16mm film stock, and predominantly natural lighting, Uno bears a heavy stylistic debt to the work of Danish auteur Nicholas Winding Refn, a debt Rennie openly acknowledges, having his two lead characters watch a pivotal scene from Refn’s Pusher – a scene that heavily prefigures what is to come in Rennie’s own film.
It is a dangerous game that Rennie is playing here. Though Refn had not yet completed his Pusher trilogy when Uno was released he was already widely acknowledged as an auteur throughout Scandanavia and were Rennie to falter at all it would have been far too easy for critics and the public to condemn him as a nothing more than a Refn knock-off, thus ending his directorial career before it truly had a chance to take root. He avoids that fate on a number of fronts.
First is that Rennie’s David has more depth than Refn’s Frank. Refn’s lead never grows, never changes, never learns anything, he simply wants to survive. David, on the other hand, is a reluctant participant in his underworld and the film charts his path from an immature youth simply following the path of least resistance into a man choosing his own path and embracing the consequences. While Pusher’s power in undeniable Uno simply has more going on below the surface.
Second is the strength of the script. Rennie worked on this script for years before showing it to anyone and continued working for two more years after lining up a producer, constantly refining and getting things just right. That attention to detail pays off large, the end result a film filled with fully realized characters, a script that gives you just enough to get a handle on things while still giving the audience plenty of room to explore and interpret. Seldom have I ever come across a film that says more with less dialogue than this. Regardless of issues of visual style Rennie’s skill as a writer is so obvious that it can’t be denied.
Third is the presence of Rennie himself. The entire cast is very strong but Rennie himself is absolutely staggering as David. He has a very natural presence on screen, effortlessly embodying the strength, fear and grief of his character. He has an incredibly expressive face, his eyes speak volumes, and can express volumes without ever saying anything at all.
TLA has done a strong job with their DVD release, giving the film an anamorphic widescreen transfer and 2.0 and 5.1 sound options. They have also gone out and subtitled all the key features from the film’s Norweigian DVD release. There are more than ten minutes of deleted scenes, a blooper reel, on set footage from the last day of shooting, and – most importantly – a very strong making of doc that focuses on the key people involved in making the film rather than the filming process. This last doc gives a very good look at Rennie, his producer, his primary co-star and the process of getting this very personal script taken from Rennie’s desk to the screen. Very good stuff.