BUDDY Rating: (out of 5 stars) Director: Morten Tyldum Producers: Gudny Hummelvoll, Knut Jensen, Bjorn Jensen Writer: Lars Gudmestad Director of Photography: John Andreas Andersen Cast: Nicolai Cleve Broch, Aksel Hennie, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Pia Tjelta, Janne Formoe Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

(Read more 2003 AFI Film Festival reviews)

Review by: Warren Curry
11/12/03

I wonder what studio will purchase the American remake rights to this fluffy, sticky sweet, and enjoyable romantic comedy from Norway. Director Morten Tyldum clearly knows how to entertain, and Buddy's 104-minute running time races by in a flash, but there are gaps in the story, awkward subplots, and characters in need of further development. (I guess small-budget European romantic comedies and their big-budget Hollywood counterparts can share the same problems.) Actually, in this case, an American remake sounds like a pretty good idea, because a retooling of the script could pay huge dividends, and I'd love to see Ben Affleck or Freddie Prinze Jr. in the lead role. Umm…I might be kidding about the second half of the previous sentence.

The film begins as we watch 20-something Kristoffer (Nicolai Cleve Broch) in the process of recording his video diary, which mainly documents the "Jackass-ish" exploits of he and his best pal Geir (Aksel Hennie). This opening DV footage led me to believe that the entire film was going to be shot in the format, but thankfully the film switches to 35mm. Kristoffer and Geir share an apartment with their agoraphobic roommate Stig Inge (Anders Baasmo Kristiansen), and make their living by hanging up posters around town. Their lives are carefree and void of responsibility, until Kristoffer's upwardly mobile girlfriend, Elisabeth (Janne Formoe), decides to dump the unsuspecting young man when he, fearing that the relationship is getting too serious, refuses to accept a key to her apartment.

While Kristoffer tries to get Elisabeth back, a female roommate, Henriette (Pia Tjelta), moves in with the guys, and subtle sparks begin to fly between she and Kristoffer. But this potential relationship has another roadblock in its way in the form of Henriette's nature loving boyfriend Dag (Håvard Bakke).

Success hits Kristoffer and his friends out of nowhere when a television producer comes across the video diaries. Soon the diaries are featured as a segment on a television talk show, giving the roommates minor celebrity status. However, the success brings different types of trouble, such as the return of Elisabeth, who's drawn to Kristoffer's sudden fame, and a rift between Kristoffer and Geir, when a secret about the latter is exposed on television.

Like most romantic comedies, there's a level of predictability inherent in Buddy, and the film doesn't offer many challenges to the accepted paradigm. The abundant use of energetic music, the young, engaging characters, and the very welcoming atmosphere make this film go down smoothly. On the surface, Buddy is an effectively pleasing film.

But Tyldum is too enamored of the script's lightweight elements, and while there's no need to force the movie to travel needlessly to overly dramatic areas, the director smoothes out too many of the rough edges. The devil-may-care comedic potential, hinted at in the opening scenes, is clearly on the table, and the inclusion of a character who didn't have a soap opera like problem at his/her core would've helped keep the film more grounded.

While Geir's troubling secret is a well-intended if not totally well executed aspect of the script, Stig Inge's dilemma is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Given Kristoffer's relationship drama and Geir's issue, this is the one character who writer Lars Gudmestad should've headed in a different direction with. All of the 20-something angst ultimately causes the characters to be too nice. The budding romance between Kristoffer and Henriette, ostensibly designed to be the movie's center, isn't nearly fleshed out enough for one to truly buy how it ties up.

The bottom line is that there is too much that is naturally appealing about this film for the mistakes to overshadow them. Buddy's goal is to entertain and make you feel good, and it definitely succeeds on those levels. And if it finds distribution in the U.S., I'd be happy to see it again.

(Screened at the 2003 AFI Film Festival.)

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