Upon first viewing I liked this movie but I didn´t think it was all that great and very overhyped. The acting was good no doubt about that but it seemed to lack in something and some things were missing. I read the book few months later which this movie is based on and I fell in love with it. The book is a bit different from the movie and we get to know the character from he is born until he´s dead as opposed to this movie we only get to see few years in his life.What I didn´t like about it was it tried to be so depressing when it didn´t have to be. The music by Hilmar and Sigurros tried to do something to us that obviously the film makers thought they weren´t able to. This was way too distracting. It was also very and I mean very annoying. The movie was also far to heavy. The book had much lighter tone to it and even though the movie had some funny scenes in it there and there it felt like a drag and sometimes it were just snapshots and more.There seemed also to be lack of character developments and you couldn´t get to know him quite well to understand what he was going through. Why did he go insane in the first place.This was however a difficult task for both the writer and the director considering that it is based on a person that they knew. Einar Már writes the screenplay which is based on his book that is based on his brothers life that wen´t insane and eventually killed himself but the movie just didn´t capture the wibe of the book. I didn´t feel all to sorry for the characters or anything.overall grade 6.5/10.

As far as I know this was my first experience with Icelandic movies. It's such a relief to see something else than your regular Hollywood motion picture. Too bad that movies like this one have a small chance of succeeding in the big world. I can only hope that people watch this by accident, by recommendation or other...Because it's really worth while. I left the cinema feeling really sad. I couldn't get the tragic destiny's of the characters out of my head. And it impressed me even more when I thought of the complexity of the film. Not only was it a tragic story, it had excellent comic reliefs and a very good soundtrack.If you have the opportunity, watch it! It's really thought provoking and made me ponder a lot.

It is the best film i have seen in the last 5 years. Surely, it will be in the same row with such masterpieces as The Platoon, Apocalypse Now, The Doors, The Dog's Heart (Russian film). Really, the play of the boy and his parents is so good that you can't even say that they "play". No, they LIVE as if it was happening to them. Notice the smile on there faces when the main hero agrees to go for a walk with them. The hate and love in one piece. And the final scene!Really, i'm still under impression of that film. It's very hard, even impossible to combine the humor and the tragedy, but if you succeed (and Frederikson did) the impact would be twice strong.I compared it with "ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST". I like this film either (and the novel itself is good, too), but after Frederikson's movie it seems simple. (the same difference I noticed after i watched the film "American history X" and "ROMPER STOMPER" - the latter is deeper). I mean Milos Forman only showed the material point of view of the problem. You watch it, then you say Yes, it's a good film, i like him, i don't like her, and that's it. But "Angels" leave you a wide base to think. There are no bad and good boys in the film. Cause each of them have the right to behave in the way they do. Like the girlfriend of one of the patient. Of course she's young and is pregnant and that is a problem for her that his husband is in the clinic, but the feelings and emotional experience of her exfriend are even stronger (the result is his suicide). Why ask him what have he done? Aren't you insane yourself to ask? Why do not support him, help him, understand him? Finally, it is even funny when those people talk to each other. They say genius things! There are a lot of things I would like to say about this film, but i'm not so good in english. But i'm sure, those of you, who have watched the movie, understand me.Good luck!

If this film doesn't at least be selected for an oscar nominee for best foreign film I'm going to stop waking at nights watching the event. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson has proven that money isn't the key to making a good movie but originality. Out of a cold country comes a warm but thought-provoking film of a mentally ill man and his struggle against an insane world. After an insight like this, you question whether or not the man is crazy or the world he lives in.