There's a cult audience waiting in the wings to discover Valdimar Jóhannsson's "Lamb," and a mainstream horror audience that will leave the theater demanding their money back. The new movie marks Jóhannsson's directorial debut - he also co-wrote the screenplay - and it is effective in its quiet, chilly atmosphere, but comes up entirely short in terms of story. The unease that is built up can only sustain for so long when there's minimal substance to support a payoff.
"Lamb" is a lot of things, genre-wise, but if you're interested in seeing something bizarre, it's best to go in knowing as little as possible. Noomi Rapace stars as Maria, who is married to Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason). They live in Iceland and work together on their farm, where they tend to their herd of sheep. Taking care of the sheep is second nature to them, but something completely different and unexplainable happens when they are assisting one sheep with a birth.
And that's all you need to know about the plot of "Lamb."
There's a lot of silence, especially in the film's early moments, which gives Jóhannsson ample time to soak up the Icelandic scenery. This creates a dizzying juxtaposition for the audience, because it's easy to get lost in the serenity of the setting, but the stillness between characters signifies that something more unsettling is happening. When Ingvar's brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) comes for a visit, his intentions aren't entirely clear, amplifying the ambiguity.
The tension built up in "Lamb" begins to deflate when what's going on becomes much more obvious, and the screenplay fails to explore the story on anything more than a surface-level basis. The overriding theme about nature brings "Lamb" to its conclusion, but the back half of the movie limps its way there and is never as interesting as what Jóhannsson built early on.
At the risk of being reductive, "Lamb" could be classified as "weird cinema," which should be supported as an alternative to mainstream blockbuster filmmaking, as weird works are what's keeping our movie theaters open in this difficult time for the industry. But, "weird cinema" also has to be good cinema, and "Lamb" is ultimately a movie with an idea, desperately searching for a story.
Lamb Movie Review By Matthew Passantino
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