Baltasar Kormákur
(“Everest”) directs Icelandic revenge thriller “The Oath,” which finds a
protective father turning to bloodshed in order to keep his family safe. Kormákur also stars, delivering a strong performance as Finnur, a respected heart surgeon with a relatively happy
life. But conflict comes in the form of his eldest daughter, Anna (Hera
Hilmar), who’s an addict, unemployed, and has recently fallen in with a shady
new boyfriend named Óttar (Gísli Örn Garðarsson). Clearly involved in
various criminal activities, and supplying Anna with enough illicit substances
to keep her hooked, Óttar is clearly enabling
her increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior.
But
Anna is an adult in the eyes of the law, so there’s only so much help the
authorities can provide. And as Finnur watches Anna
descend further down a troublesome path, he’s willing to go to any lengths to
protect get Óttar out of his daughter’s
life for good.
Finnur’s desire to protect his
family is only exacerbated by the recent death of his own father, with whom he
shared a strained relationship. As his power struggle with Óttar escalates Finnur finds himself abandoning the Hippocratic Oath, and
intending to first do plenty of harm.
Working
from a script co-written with Ólafur Egilsson, Kormákur maintains a
grim tone, while constantly teetering on the edge of the sort of over-the-top
action found in Liam Neeson’s “Taken” series or
something from the oeuvre of Charles Bronson. Instead, the filmmaker aims for
something more a bit more challenging, and the result is sometimes uneven, but
never less than darkly compelling.
Visit
rochestercitynewspaper.com on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of the romantic
comedy “Home Again” starring Reese Witherspoon.
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2017.
