The Oath

This is quite a bleak thriller, basically about a father trying to protect his daughter from her drug dealing boyfriend, despite his claims to have cleaned his act up. Its quite bloody/violent at times, as would be expected. There are one or two plot twists. Its a decent watch, if you dont mind a pretty bleak watch and are ok with the subtitles (if you don't speak Icelandic, obviously). Also, if your curious, the oath mentioned in the film title refers to the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical staff, such as the father who has a day job as a surgeon.

Finnur (Baltasar Kormákur) is surgeon who is worried about his eldest daughter, Anna (Hera Hilmar). Anna has been involved with drugs and Finnur is made aware that Anna's boyfriend Óttar is a drug dealer. Thinking he is an bad influence on Anna, Finnur tries to break up the relationship. But neither Anna nor Óttar has any intention in doing so and Óttar becomes threatening due to Finnur's incursions on their private life. After Finnur's workmate Halldór shows him a victim of a shooting, Finnur starts to plan for Óttar's disappearance... "The Oath" (Eiðurinn) is a slow paced Icelandic thriller with hardly a unique storyline and with the well known Baltasar Kormákur (whom we mostly know as a director) in the lead. The film (actually the highest grossing film of 2016 on Iceland) has great cinematography with beautiful Iceland as the backdrop, but nothing really stands out in this film in my opinion. It´s uneven and sometimes not really logic in the plot. There´s a potential for a full on gripping drama, but "The Oath" fails really to reach that height.

Excellent emotions. fine acting.

A simple premise with subtle characterization leaves no room for useless additions and subplots. "The Oath" acts entirely on its own, balancing fast paced emotion with a subtle rational hand, all while shedding the light on a drug dealing problem becoming more prevalent in the 300,000 person island. As the characters juggle with morality, the audience is left captivated and following to the very end, wondering who truly is the villain at the heart of this film.