Rent Lamb (2021)

Brilliant original film - Lamb review by DR

Superb - not your run- of- the mill Hollywood crap. Scenic and austere almost silent at times. Relax and enjoy the uniqueness and surprising storyline.am sure it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but I am still musing about a week later Noomi Rapace is as ever outstanding. This is how to make proper films !!!!! Highly recommended if you like off the wall gritty tales

An astonishing, indefinable film - Lamb review by NP

‘Lamb’ is an extraordinary film from Iceland, which leaves you in no doubt that working on a farm there is hard, relentless and isolated. So when Maria (Noomi Rapace) and her husband Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are visited by Ingvar’s errant brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson), you realise how idyllic their life was, despite the hardships.

The reason for this is, after the loss of their child some unspecified time earlier, they have a new little one. Strange and mysterious: an aberration, it seems, but nevertheless, the apple of their eye. The child’s strangeness provokes a series of reactions from the audience – laughter, incredulity and even revulsion, all of which are accommodated for in the production – and yet, when Pétur is similarly incredulous, we resent what he might do.

The effects in ‘Lamb’ are as wonderful as they can possibly be, and Ada the child (voiced by Lára Björk Hall) is, when we have finally realised what she is, utterly appealing. It’s easy to understand the couple’s attachment to her – so much so that when her maternal mother shows ‘too much’ interest, Maria’s reaction to the perceived intrusion is explosive. So too, is the final, astonishing twist which came as a huge surprise to me, but makes perfect sense.

Not an easy film to define, and it leaves you with several different emotions once it ends, ‘Lamb’ is thoroughly recommended.

Lamb Cutlets Definitely Off the Menu! - Lamb review by Strovey

I used taciturn in my synopsis of this film and I was not kidding. With an overwhelming feeling of being ‘European’ we get long sweeping and frankly beautiful vistas of Iceland’s cold and mountainous wilderness and little dialogue. The main actors Noomi Rapace and Hilmir Guonason go about their characters’ lives as if they were really them. Just working hard and talking little. Real life if you like.

The acting immediately makes you feel that the two characters are happy with each other and indeed seem to love their lives but something is missing, something unsaid. This is well-acted and well-directed. It is patience and time that will lead you to the answer. Many filmgoers these days do not have this and I can imagine more than a few viewers turning the film off or leaving the showing within half an hour of the start.

But your patience is rewarded with a very slow-burning and bizarre tale that seems to have some roots in folklore, without research I cannot say if it is or is not, but if not it should be.

Now without knowing you could take what you see literally and it becomes a very weird, slightly spooky tale or it could be something allegorical where you need to look past the initial images and story. Truth be told I do not know but I did enjoy what I saw.

If I say any more about this story I will basically give away the simple storyline and as there are only three main actors, plus a voice actor, who all do fine believable jobs there is nothing much more I add.

The actors are all particularly good and naturalistic in the style of European acting, with a lot less flash and more slow burn. The Icelandic remote mountainous scenery reminds me of where I live now, the Scottish Highlands, and I can imagine that the rural work life is actually similar to this for anyone familiar with it.

What happens at the very beginning of the film and in the last half an hour or so does not happen too often to anyone – I hope.

Overall, Lamb is a slow-paced, slow-burning, bonkers tale with a fairly surprising ending, although what precedes the ending does point to the conclusion if you are paying attention. The acting and cinematography are top notch, Noomi Rapace always seems to be good no matter what she is asked to do.

I liked Lamb but I have to say if like a bit of whizz-bang action, actors getting very emotional and smashing cups to show that and so forth, this is not going to be the film for you but if you are looking for something weird and different this might be.