"You must be patient," someone says to the protagonist, Maria, about halfway through the movie. Ain't it the truth. I kept waiting for something to happen. A new acquaintance tells her he's working on a project about how birds change their song when they go from the country to the city. This is the most interesting thing that has happened so far, I thought to myself. Ever keep watching a movie you hated all the way to the end just because you couldn't believe what you were watching could be that bad and you just had to see if something, anything was going to salvage it from disaster? Well, I did keep watching and toward the end a few things do finally happen, including a scene the movie had basically been building up to in its effort to show us how clever it is (if I may be permitted to anthropomorphize a movie). Also, some philosophy gets thrown around as does some hanky-panky and some more measurements (in one case to complement the hanky-panky) and we get to hear the birds again. Perhaps, dear fellow film fan, you are more patient than I and when the credits finally begin to roll you will sigh and whisper to your beloved, or to yourself if, sadly, you are alone, "Ah, that was a lovely movie." As for me, my TV menu informs me that Die-hard 2 will be showing this afternoon. I don't know if I will like it, but I do know that I need it.

This movie nicely contrasts the emotional upheaval of the main character's life (divorce, father's illness) with her job...that of precise and careful measurement. The humor is understated and sometimes catches you unawares. The conference she attends in Paris is very funny (and a nice commentary on how seriously we sometimes take ourselves). But the suffering she experiences later provides a nice departure from the earlier humor. And, not to give too much away, the final scene ends with a completely inevitable but completely appropriate joke. You'll have to watch it if you want to know what I mean. Ultimately, I recommend it but be warned that it is a quiet, subtle and in some ways very traditional and slow moving story. I liked it.

I'll readily admit I am a fan of the acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer, having especially liked two of his previous films "O'Horten" and "Kitchen Stories". Here again Hamer displays his satirical and droll humor along with his impeccable cinematography. However, this movie will probably appeal to a very thin slice of filmgoers with its extremely slow pacing, and I think you really have to like this kind of tongue-in-cheek humor to enjoy it.Ane Dahl Torp is simply captivating here as Marie, who works for the Norwegian Metrology Service, and has been entrusted to transport the all-important national kilo of Norway to a conference in Paris. There, at the BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), the kilo will be weighed and re-calibrated, if necessary. Meanwhile her life is filled with troubles as she's going through a divorce, and her father Ernst (Stein Winge) has suffered a severe heart attack.However, once in Paris, she meets Pi, most ably portrayed by Laurent Stocker, who's a professor and scientist, but after difficulties in his life has chosen to get away from it all by being a part-time gardener at BIPM and is conducting a project on birdsong. He's living with his mother who has Alzheimer's. I thought the chemistry between Marie and Pi really was quite believable and worked well.All in all, this film will certainly not appeal to everyone, but for those who like Hamer's droll and satirical humor you may very well end up enjoying this movie as well, with Torp and Stocker's performances adding much here.

Norwegian female scientist. Her man seems to have left her and she only meets him, or watches his car, sometimes when he returns to their house to collect things. Her father works at the same place, but has some alcohol problems. They are keepers of an item to be compared to The Holy Graal. The official Norwegian kilo prototype.She has to go to Paris to have it checked, together with the rest of the world. She's a woman who hardly ever smiles, probably because she's not familiar with what a soul means. Or its weight.This is supposed to be a comedy, but it's too slow and not enough funny. Not that a comedy has to be fast, but somehow this tempo seems a little about having difficulty to fill 1,5 hour.