Directed by:
Baldvin ZophoníassonCinematography:
Johann Mani JohanssonComposer:
Ólafur ArnaldsCast:
Hera Hilmar, Thor Kristjansson, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson, Þorsteinn Bachmann, Ingvar Thordarson, Atli Óskar Fjalarsson, Joel Saemundsson (more)Plots(1)
Eik is a single mother struggling to make ends meet by any means possible. Sölvi is a former athlete who's now trying to climb the corporate ladder. Mori is a once respected author who's now a full-time drunk. Soon fate will make them meet. Life in a fishbowl portrays three intertwined stories that take place in Reykjavik before the devastating economic crisis in 2008. Móri is a poet and a drunkard, battling with his past and searching for forgiveness for the unforgiveable. Eik, who is a young mother and nursery school teacher, moonlights as a hooker in order to support herself and her daughter. She has to struggle to make ends meet because she is utterly estranged from her extremely well-to-do family. Sölvi is a famous former footballer who is making his way up the corporate ladder. Gradually, he becomes entangled in a world of corruption and moral complacency and bit by bit he starts to lead a double life. The film became a box office hit in Iceland and local media even consider it the best Icelandic film of all time. (Cinemax)
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Reviews (2)
I would like to say that this whole genre of episodic storytelling is passé, but I can do with the fact that the similarly laborious and unreliable realization is passé. It has been written about Life in a Fishbowl that it is the best Icelandic film of all time... I don't know, I think maybe Ragnar Bragason performed an analysis of the local society in Parents more humbly and more credibly. Life in a Fishbowl is a summary of all the flaws that a similar film can have - themes used half-apathetically, characters molded as needed for the point, and the points themselves made in the midcult barren spirit. Although Baldvin Z. never is never downright boring, the sterility of his film is annoying.
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The biggest issue of the film lies in that it combines too many things, which do not conclude in a proper ending. All the characters just somehow sail through the movie and in the end do not put together a coherent ending. Plus, there are the three stories, which are not original in any aspect. Quite the contrary. They are completely ordinary. But maybe what makes them unique is exactly the fact that they are ordinary. So ordinary that the Icelanders consider this film a top hit. For me, it is not so. It is just an ordinary peek into the life of people behaving like people and that is probably what makes it unique.
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Photo © Sena
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