E-Mail This Article to a Friend NÓI

An aphorism from Søren Kierkegaard sets the tone for this wry, engaging, but inconsequential oddity from first-time Icelandic director Dagur Kári: "Whether you hang yourself or don’t hang yourself, you will regret it either way." The philosopher’s name, the gruff bookstore owner reading the quote points out with disdain, means "graveyard." Small consolation to 17-year-old Nói (Tómas Lemarquis), who is already disgusted with life in his tiny hamlet on the bleak West Fjord. He’s different from the other oddball townsfolk. A hairless albino, he’s also a little telepathic, and a "wonder boy" according to the shrink who asks him about masturbation while Nói effortlessly solves a Rubik’s cube. Expelled from school, he takes a shine to Iris (Elín Hansdóttir), who works at the gas station. They dream of Hawaii, but for now he toils at the graveyard. Elements of such disparate films as Powder, Good Will Hunting, Rebel Without a Cause and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Rouge (could the splashes of that color in the film’s uniform blue green be an allusion?) come and go, related in a minimalist Aki Kaurismäki style. Whether you see this film or don’t, you won’t regret it either way. In Icelandic with English subtitles. (88 minutes)