The premise of "Aberdeen" is outrageously sentimental; however, Charlotte Rampling
(The Night Porter (Criterion Collection Spine #59); Under the Sand), with her trademark
dry delivery, has never uttered a sentimental word onscreen in her life. In this movie, as
"Helen,"she's supposedly in an Aberdeen hospital, near death with cancer. She calls her
daughter "Kaisa," a successful, feisty(as they so often say), London lawyer with sidelines
in snorting coke and one-night stands with strangers, played by Lena Headey (Terminator
- The Sarah Connor Chronicles - The Complete First Season; 300 [Blu-ray]). Helen asks
Kaisa to go find Helen's husband (common-law or otherwise, we never know), and
Kaisa's father, Tomas Heller, as played by Stellan Skarsgard(Breaking the Waves;
Mamma Mia! The Movie - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! DVD Gift Set Version). He's
previously worked the North Sea oil rigs, but is now back in his Norwegian homeland.
Aberdeen, a town on Scotland's Northeast coast is, in its modern incarnation, pretty much
a wild west rootin' tootin' oil boom town, where you might go quite a distance hearing
only Texas accents and passing only Tex-Mex eateries. Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus, in
his series of mystery novels, calls Aberdeen natives "Wooly Boots,” though I can't
remember why for the life of me. The men who work the oil rigs generally work periods
of some time; then have some time off, the better to allow them to drink an ocean or two
of alcohol at their leisure. But, of course, Tomas is no longer working, he'd sure be
dangerous if he were, and he's a nasty, stinky, unmanageable full-time drunk. Mind you,
the Scots are hardly known as teetotalers, and the Scandinavians, with their six dark
winter months, well...
So Kaisa sets out for Norway to find Tomas; that she does. But between his drunkenness
and her temper, they are unable to board a plane, and must drive back: road trip, anyone?
This particular road trip follows the conventions of the genre. Kaisa and Tomas discover
more about themselves, and each other, than they may have wanted to. They get
themselves in a lot of trouble; they'd never have gotten through it without the help of Ian
Hart (Wonderland), as the kindly truck driver Clive. There will be some scenes that are
almost unbearable to watch. If the movie weren't Norwegian made, and, perhaps, even
though it is, it might be described as tartan noir: there's a high level of violence, it surely
is bloody-minded, and without the occasional leavening humor, it really might be
unbearable.
It does seem to take them quite a long time to get from London to Scotland, though to be
sure they have a lot of business to get through on that drive. Also, oddly enough, the
movie seems to be filmed entirely, or almost entirely, in Glasgow, no matter where it
claims to be. At one point, they are in what I am sure is the magnificent, paneled interior
of Glasgow's main train station-- while they claim to be in Edinburgh.
The acting, with the cast this movie boasts, is superb. Charlotte Rampling makes the most
of her few minutes of screen time and her death scene. Lena Headey is beautiful, and
makes "Kaisa" so real you worry about her. Ian Hart is excellent as "Clive." But Stellan
Skarsgard, a Swedish actor speaking English in a Norwegian movie set in Scotland: he's
uncanny. He plays an almost unbearably convincing drunk.
Road picture it may be, but this movie does end up in an unexpected, touching place, as
Kaisa and her father do at last seem to break through to each other. If you can stand the
ride, the arrival's a great reward.