An achingly beautiful film, Aberdeen has an outrageously sentimental premise: Kaisa (Lena Headey) is asked by her fatally ill mother (Charlotte Rampling) to bring her estranged father Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård,) to visit before her mother dies. Kaisa finds Tomas--a jobless drunk--at his home in Norway, and basically drags him on a road trip back to Scotland, over the course of which they're forced to grapple with their past. This could be a recipe for maudlin sap, but instead--thanks to sharp incisive writing, unexpected characters, and performances that encompass humor, brutally honest self-destructive behavior, and subtle gentleness--Aberdeen is bracing, constantly surprising, and deeply engaging. The entire cast (including the always solid Ian Hart, of Backbeat and Hollow Reed) is incredibly good. Highly recommended. --Bret Fetzer
(15 votes)
2.
Kaisa (Lena Headey) is a hard-edged, feisty young Scottish woman basking in the attention of her co-workers as they celebrate her recent promotion at their highly respected London law firm. The next morning, the telephone rings and an agitated Kaisa orders her one-night-stand to hit the road. Her mother, Helen (Charlotte Rampling), is calling with an unusual request: she wants Kaisa to go to Norway, pick up her alcoholic father, Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård), and bring him back to Aberdeen, where he has promised to try an experimental detox program. The lure of the reward, Tomas' vintage Alfa Romeo, outweighs Kaisa's discomfort with seeing the man who abandoned her family 10 years earlier.
As expected, the reunion is more bitter than sweet. But what Kaisa doesn't expect is the tumultuous series of events that follow. Tomas is unimpressed with Kaisa's fancy suits and sharp tongue. He criticizes her for being too "angry and masculine." Kaisa, in turn, is disgusted with the odious drunkard who steals her money, vomits on her designer clothes, and to her surprise, has no intention of beginning a detox program and never did. Kaisa's mother has ambushed her, and when Kaisa learns why, she is even more desperate to complete her mission. After a heart-wrenching scene at the Oslo airport where an uptight airline employee prevents Kaisa and her father from boarding their flight due to Tomas' apparent insobriety, the unlikely couple is to spend much more time together than they had hoped - as they make the long journey to Scotland by car. Along the way, they meet Clive (Ian Hart), who is pivotal in helping Kaisa let down her emotional defenses and accept her father back into her life.
"Beautifully acted, ferociously observant!" -New York Times
Kaise (Lena Headey), a beautiful and feisty Scottish woman, finally has her life together… at least until her mother Charlotte Rampling) asks an enormous favor: to bring back to her Kaisa's estranged, larger-than-life father (Stellan Skarsgard). The two of them, father and daughter together, set out on a wild, brutally funny yet heartbreaking journey, which takes them through their emotional past before reaching their ultimate destination.
(15 votes)
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