Hawaii,Oslo - Norwegian The best movie I have seen this year so far. This one was a very special , a very unique ethereal experience. I can feel my head cool and relaxed due to the blood flowing inside I guess. The movie was at the same intriguing , spiritual , hopeful , emotional.The script has as much content to extract five six movies out and I am surprised I don't see many awards linked to this movie on the DVD cover. It is about people placed in very very delicate situations and then things turning over magically. There is a father whose new-born son would die in a few hours as he is incapable of sustaining without the umbilical chord.The solution is to create an umbilical chord and fix back and the doctors have written off as impossible. The father does not give up and holds the straw of a private clinic operation at the huge cost of 900,000 Kronas that he cannot manage and he sells off everything and is about to attempt a bank robbery when another character in the movie robs the bank just before.The most joyous moment for me was when he sits dejected and one of the robber brothers, who runs away from the robbery .... edited to not reveal one of the many suspenses that the movie offers There is Leon who runs whenever he is not sure what to do next. The first scene of the movie is a dream that Jiddar(Leon's friend) sees and whatever he sees tends to be true. So he gets worried and tries to prevent the mishaps. The story goes through various situations where incident after incident, things turn positive and starts to move more and more away from the dream until the end when the first scene is repeated as it is. The movie is brilliantly engineered and has a lot of beauty to it. Lot of troubled lives trapped in cities. I would think that lot of the trouble would go off if people live together. A lady takes pills to suicide and is saved by a note message that one of her sons who has not seen each her in eleven years sends through a paper-girl. There is the plot of the robber brother who is given parole to meet Leon on his birthday.I started off by seeing this as a sweet gesture where as quickly a deep plan unfolds. The movie is rich. In story , in emotion , in acting , in direction - perfect control and an awesome awesome ride.

Hawaii, Oslo is a story about the fear of being alone and the struggle to find someone to love. Set in present day Oslo, Erik Poppe's second film tells three different stories that intertwine. First is the story of Leon, an institutionalized kleptomaniac who is celebrating his 25th birthday. He is waiting for Åsa, a longtime friend and soon to be fiancé if they carry out their pact to marry each other if they are both single at 25. The plan becomes more complicated when his imprisoned brother, Trygve, comes with plans to escape the guard watching him and move to Hawaii with Leon. Leon is unwillingly taken on a journey through the streets of Oslo which seem to be taking him farther and farther from Åsa.Next, we meet Mikkel and Magne, brothers who are living on their own after the recent death of their father. Mikkel fears separation from his brother if they enter into state care and acts hostile towards two social workers who take them to see their father's funeral. He is also hostile towards his mother, who has not seen her boys in over ten years. She is introduced in the film with a failed suicide attempt, but finds meaning in life when notified of her children's' father's death by Magne. Her battle to become the boys' mother will not be easy as Mikkel and Magne run away to avoid separation in foster homes.Frode and Mille are the last couple we meet in the film and are the happy parents of a newly-born boy. Their joy over parenthood is destroyed, however, as they learn that their child has a rare heart condition and most likely will not survive for more than a week. Only one hospital in the world has ever fixed this kind of defect, and the operation will cost 900,000 kroner (about $155,000), far more than the couple's assets. Frode will stop at nothing to raise the necessary funds for the operation while Mille gives up on hope for a cure. Their relationship understandably becomes strained over the fate of their child.While these three story lines intertwine, they are connected by Vidar, a supervisor at the institution where Leon lives. He has the ability to see the future and past in his dreams and seems to have a platonic love for anyone he encounters. As he bumps into the troubled characters of the film, he uses his visions to prepare them for the future and comfort them about the past.The film centers on the characters' struggle to find love in their life and the fear of losing the love or fallacy of love they already have. The characters are beautifully portrayed in this aspect, and their fears and hopes seem real. Nothing is overplayed or romanticized and the stories create a fear for the worst in the viewer. Leon is driven by the memory of Åsa and is determined to reach her if she shows up. He is also haunted by the fear that she has forgotten him and that he will never see her again. Meanwhile, Frode fears losing his child and will do anything to assure a long and healthy life for the boy. He sells all his assets, including a guitar once owned by Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, but still comes up short in his quest for 900,000 kroner. With the almost certain death of his child approaching, he must act quickly if he wants to save both the boy and his relationship with his wife. At first glance, Mikkel may appear to dislike his brother, often berating and abusing him. However, this is a sign of love as Mikkel fears losing Magne and only wants to control him to keep him close. He fears his mother does not actually love them as she attempts to become their guardian once again. We see this is not true though, for she seems to need them to carry on with her life. There are some other minor story lines about love including an ambulance worker who falls for the boys' mother after saving her and the love Trygve feels for Leon.The movie also has religious and spiritual themes. Vidar uses his visions to guide and comfort the other characters and is seen as a guardian angel or even as a Jesus-like image. Early in the film, he quotes Jesus in order to stop a patient from harming Leon, saying, "Whatever you do to Leon, you also do to me." He also seems to shed feathers in several scenes and Leon even calls him his guardian angel while holding one of these feathers. There is a great scene later in the movie when we learn that another recurring character is "not who she says she is," but presumably an angel as well. These two divine figures interfere with what appears to be the fate of the characters to be alone and are a driving force for change in the lives of those around them. I did not find this theme particularly compelling but thought it was well done. Poppe presents the divine figures in a very subtle way, not making the movie about them but using them to progress the story. I also think that religious audiences will be more interested in this aspect of the film than I was.Despite these triumphs, the film does have its drawbacks. The plot takes a long time to set up and the slow nature of the beginning can take viewers out of the story. The film is not particularly unique and has nothing new to say. The ending was especially predictable and turned me off a bit. However, Hawaii, Oslo was fun to watch and really involves the viewer. The experiences in the film are ones that everyone can connect to and sympathize with, and the story, driven by many great performances, is engrossing once it takes off.7/10

I saw this film at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was absolutely shaken by it. As one of the people that commented before, the scene with the oldest of the two boys in the church just broke my heart. I've seen more films where things and people come together through faith, but never seen it so wonderfully done as in this film. Also, it leaves something to think about when you step out of the cinema. Basically the whole film being about true love between people in all aspects and in all the silly ways that people show this to one another, is too beautiful not to be appreciated for how it's filmed. Maybe you have to still truly believe in love to be able to appreciate this film. Ten out of ten.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.This movie was - unbelievably - one of the most popular Norwegian films in 2004. It's hard to see why. Full of over-acting and feeling', it's hard to keep your dinner down at times. Sometimes there's a message in there, along the lines that if you just work hard enough, believe hard enough, everything will be all right. But maybe not always... Sprinkled with a solid spoonful of awful magic realism, it's not easy to see what side the author is on (hard science or Coelho-style stupidity), especially in the story of the couple with an infant suffering from some fatal heart disease. But at least the director gives it slowly away, by portraying the doctor looking awful and unshaven, and even bare chested underneath his white coat. The level-headed mother who at first is trying to get to grip with the reality, finally comes around and agrees to try the far-fetched attempt of going to the US to try to save the baby. The other stories are pretty idiotic and unbelievable, and only feeble people will find this a good movie. Not that there's anything wrong with trying to tell people that there's always hope, but it does matter how you try to do it. This movie fails spectacularly. Stay away at all cost.Rating: 3/10 (because the competition at the bottom is pretty steep)