By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 1.5 cats
Director: Róbert I. Douglas
Starring: Arnmundur Ernst Björnsson | Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson | Helgi Björnsson | Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir
Original language title: Strákarnir okkar
Country: iceland
Year: 2006
Running time: 85
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427906/
Bruce says: “Although I did laugh several times at the campy one-liners that one would expect more from a US sitcom than an Icelandic feature film, ELEVEN MEN OUT is just not very good. Ottar (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) is a star soccer player who decides to out himself during a magazine interview in the team locker room because he discovers that the interview is not the magazine’s cover story. He figures a bit of sensationalism will get him the attention he deserves. That it does, but his announcement also gets him kicked off the team.
“Ottar’s alcoholic wife Gugga (Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir), a former Miss Iceland, sloshes around the house and various bars slurring her words as she tries to get a little action on the side. Her husband calls her a slut. The morning after she gives her estranged husband a blow job, she declares, ‘I must be hitting bottom, sleeping around with gay men.’ Their thirteen year old son (Arnaldur Ernst) appears to be sulking, out of sorts for some reason. The coach of the soccer team – Ottar’s father – is thoroughly disgusted with Ottar and wants him to undo ‘the mess you’ve gotten the family into.’ Ottar’s brother, a video store owner, suggests Ottar and Gugga rent BARFLY and PHILADELPHIA. A friend suggests that Ottar start playing for a gay soccer
team. And so he does.
“What ensues is somewhat humorous but very two dimensional. Viewer empathy is difficult, for Ottar is both a misogynist and a bully. The acting is not good enough to suggest there is anything of substance behind the verbal darts. The sound is also very bad. (That may not be a problem with the film itself but with the sound system at the venue which was screening the film.) Even with bad sound, I could easily tell identify ‘Just Walk Away Renee’ and ‘I Am What I Am,’ both sung in Icelandic. Where is Björk when we need her? 1.5 cats
“ELEVEN MEN OUT was screened at the 2006 Provincetown International Film Festival”