101 REYKJAVIK []
A cool comedy from Iceland. In English and Icelandic with English subtitles. Running time: 100 minutes. Not rated (sex, nudity, profanity). At Film Forum, Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue and and Varick Street.
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THE often hilarious “101 Reykjavik” has been accurately described as an Icelandic version of Pedro Almodovar’s gender-bending black comedies – but it’s also reminiscent of early Woody Allen movies.
Hilmir Snaer Gudnason is endearing as Hlynur, a 30-year-old unemployed slacker who shares an apartment in the Icelandic capital with his middle-aged mom, Berglind (Hanna Maria Karlsdottir), who’s long divorced from his alcoholic dad.
Their flat is so small the bathtub is in the kitchen – when Hlynur emerges naked from the shower, Mom is there with a towel and fresh underwear for him.
Hlynur is only mildly depressed about this arrangement, spending his days surfing Internet porn sites and his nights club-hopping in downtown Reykjavik (the title refers to the area’s postal code).
Loath to accept any kind of responsibility, he’s become adept at keeping his girlfriend, Hofi (Thrudur Vilhjalmsdottir), at arm’s length – at least until she announces she’s pregnant.
Then Hlynur falls for his mother’s friend, a sexy Spanish flamenco-dancing teacher named Lola (Almodovar veteran Victoria Abril).
Hlynur eventually learns that “me and my mother have our fingers in the same pie” (i.e., Lola) – but not before Lola, too, has become pregnant after a night of drunken sex with our hero.
An overwhelmed Hlynur contemplates suicide with amusing results.
Writer-director Baltasar Kormakur keeps things bubbling in his impressive debut, which has a generosity of spirit, sharp character observation and solid performances that keep it from slipping into cliché and stereotype.
The English subtitles translating Hlynur’s Icelandic voice-over narration are unusually witty, as are his English-language exchanges with Abril.