Middle-class kid with nice liberal parents, living in Oslo, takes drugs and gets free help to overcome addiction that but doesn't succeed- that really is the story. The only problem it would seem is an ex-girlfriend, if only she would talk to him, all would be well (because of course, you are so wrapped in yourself, the rest of the world doesn't matter). If you like that sort of thing and like peering into the screen (because it is so dark most of the time) to decipher what is going on, that is great. I was having hard time figuring out the continuity- it seemed morning then suddenly evening, then night then evening again- poor lighting and bad editing combined. Poor little rich kid also doesn't need to eat or even pee! There are much better Norwegian movies to watch- don't waste your time on this.

Oslo, October 31st (2011)A highly realistic, intimate view of a young man who has completed a drug abuse program and is trying to rejoin his life. It's a rough ride, sometimes boring, sometimes raw, but it's the real thing, and if you have an interest in this kind of common problem without watching a documentary, this is the movie.Though set in Oslo, there is a universal quality to all of this. Yes, the leading man, Anders, has the usual problem getting jobs. But that's just the beginning. It's about friends who want to help and friends who expect him to help them be wild. It's about old girlfriends, new girlfriends, parties where you can't drink, family that wasn't adequate, and on and on.And the temptation of real drugs, beyond drink.It's odd to realize, but I think the bottom line is that most young people live in a culture that's on the edge, on purpose and for good reason. And there is a percentage of people who can't handle that, who need to go over the edge, and will always go over the edge. Some of those people understand it early and save themselves, others never can. And life is a series of crises.This isn't a feel good movie about a man who succeeds (I'm not saying here if he succeeds or not—just that it's not some sunny happiness after a round with the devil). This is about what it might be like to be in the shoes of Anders, or anyone like him, and how almost impossible it is to rise up. And his friends and family are partly to blame, sad to admit.The final few minutes of the film are poetic—elegiac might be a better word—and the opening to the film is similarly daring and edgy. It's odd and perhaps too bad the the middle—the bulk of it—is more prosaic. It's good, it's really good, but without the poetry we are sure to sink into empathy and sadness, watching what is surely so believable it is, somewhere, all too real.

I watched this because I read a rave review.Maybe it is realistic. In the sense that reality can be extremely dull.I found it tiresome and completely uninvolving. If you end up caring about any of the characters, you're a better man than I.In presenting someone who's suicidal, it certainly left me wanting to slit my own wrists.Basically, it's a day in the life of a spoilt, self-pitying, self-absorbed twit.I only wish he'd killed himself at the start of the film rather than the end as it would have saved me the tedious torture of watching it.I hope this review saves someone else from wasting time that could be much better spent.

The opening and closing minutes of Oslo, August 31rst are peerless filmmaking, a simultaneously nostalgic and disturbing slideshow of images from the titular city, which appears as some kind of larger supernatural entity with a will of its own. The film that they bracket is pretty decent too. It's a quiet slice of cinema verite about Anders, a recovering drug addict.This isn't your standard AA-approved narrative of redemption, and that's what makes it good. Anders discovers that the world outside is frosty, ambivalent towards him, and most of all banal and meaningless. Of course, the difficulty is portraying banality without being banal yourself, and Trier doesn't entirely succeed here. But it does provide, on top of the more philosophical statement, a great representation of the difficulty of getting back into society after leaving it. Oslo, August 31rst is smart enough to see the social barriers that make the standard addiction narrative so deceitful.Other than the immediately striking opening, there's nothing overtly impressive about this film. It has its flaws, such as the ending, which seems contrived compared to everything that's come before. But it's a quietly solid picture that certainly deserves a little of your time.