What never should have been
There is a reason why film shooting often takes more than eight days.
The Arthaus movie «What once was» claims to be a «finely tuned relationship drama.» It tries to express the feelings that arise when a close friendship cracks through poetic images and moods in the room. It remains an experiment, and the film emerges more as a thoughtful portrayal of mundane situations with pseudo poetic images of green leaves and toes not pointed to anything.
The low budget movie was made in eight days one Oslo summer two years ago. This explains the exploitation of the Oslo romance. Long nights of swimming in the fountains, cycling through tunnels and lots of beer. We have seen it before and the audience laughs at scenes reminiscent of Joachim Trier's film adaptation of a day in Oslo – which today are clichés.
Long nights of swimming in the fountains, cycling through tunnels and lots of beer. We have seen before. » The scenes are embarrassingly often filmed in slow motion, and with dramatic music it creates an expectation that something will happen, but the twist never comes. «What once was» strives to be an alternative movie but ends up proving that it is not enough to add specific terms for the film shooting and plot development to create a different and innovative movie.
To depict a friendship that is about to unravel and after parties you would have done without, is a good idea. Many will recognize the theme. Nevertheless the movie emerges as empty of meaning and forgettable, and most of all leaves an unsatisfied audience. The actors are good, but the characters seem unsympathetic and one-sided. With that the movie’s credibility and most reasons to take the trouble to see it vanishes.