COLD FEVER
(A KOELDUM KLAKA)
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: A young Japanese travels across
Iceland to visit the site where his parents died
seven years earlier in this US-Icelandic-German-
Danish co-production. Masatoshi Nagase stars as
the bewildered traveler who must figure out the
rules of this strange land, often just to stay
alive. This is a modest, unassuming little story
co-written by the film's producer, Jim Stark and
the film's director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. It
does for Iceland what Bill Forsyth films do for
Scotland, present an affectionate if not entirely
credible look at an eccentric but likable people.
Rating: Low +2 (-4 to +4)
Atsushi Hirata is a stranger in a strange land. He wanted to spend his holiday in Hawaii, but his grandfather talked him into an unusual family responsibility. He has to trek across Iceland in the dead of winter to the remote spot where his parents died seven years before. There he must perform a traditional Japanese memorial ceremony. Any journey through unfamiliar territory can be a mixture of comedy and horrors and in the frozen Iceland of December the right (or wrong) error could prove fatal. (One ominous road sign asks in several languages "Does anyone know you are going this way?") In Jim Stark's and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's screenplay characters time and again find they must put themselves in each other's hands or volunteer help to others. Sometimes it proves to be a wise thing to do; sometimes it is a mistake.
The most active character in the story is the landscape of Iceland, a colorless combination of fog, ice, snow, and black rock. Sometimes it looks dead only to come to life unpredictably spouting volcanic geysers of hot water into the air. In this mostly frozen world Atsushi is a fish out of water, trying to understand the strange Icelandic people and the rules they live by. Notable among the people he meets are a woman who claims to collect funerals (or rather pictures and recordings of them), a bar of Icelanders who consider themselves cowboys, and an incredibly rude and vulgar American couple. Sometimes Atsushi finds that going with the flow of the people around him is dangerous, but sometimes fighting the tide is worse.
Atsushi Hirata is played by Masatoshi Nagase, who seems to be specializing in the role of Japanese tourist abroad. He played a similar character in Jim Jarmusch's MYSTERY TRAIN. His character does not convey a lot of emotion that is obvious to a Western audience. And much of his character's appeal is in the empathy of what he must be feeling rather than his expressiveness. Fisher Stevens and Lili Taylor play the American couple whom Atsushi finds much more trouble helping than it seems worth. Much more appealing is the morbid but pleasant fan of funerals, Laura, played by Laura Hughes.
Not all that is in the script is original or even in good taste. To create artificially some visual excitement on the first scene of the frozen landscape of Iceland, Fridriksson borrows a touch from THE ROAD WARRIOR. There seem to be some scenes poking fun at the lack of appeal of Icelandic cuisine that seem a little over the top. The moral of the story and what Atsushi has learned from his experience is a line simply spoken at the end of the film and seems a bit pat and uninspiring. Except perhaps for its setting this film is not going to win any awards for originality or profundity or even for being highly articulate of its theme. But it is as amiable a film as many playing at local theaters and from time to time even manages a few surprises.
COLD FEVER is a likable if somewhat unoriginal road picture, even it may not have much to say other than to accept Icelanders however weird their customs are. One wonders if the beautiful but forbidding vistas of Icelandic landscapes, looking like views of another world, will help or hurt Iceland's tourist business. The film itself rates a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1996 Mark R. Leeper
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