Terribly Happy

Scandinavian comedy is pretty dry, Terribly Happy adds a darker edge to it. It sounds like a golden combination on paper, but most of these films fail to take their premise far enough for them to be actually funny, Terribly Happy stumbles into that very pitfall. It's not a bad effort, it just wasn't enough.

Robert is a big-city cop who messed up and gets transferred to a small rural hamlet until the storm blows over. He's not looking forward to his assignment, as the townspeople are pretty peculiar. One family in particular stands out. The brutish Jørgen who hits his wife Ingerlise. Robert gets in the middle of their quarrels, which only makes matters worse.

Performances are solid, and the setting is pleasantly remote. The characters aren't quite weird enough though and the dark comedy twists are pretty predictable. There are traces of Fargo and Calvaire here, but Genz fails to elevate his film to similar heights. Decent filler, nothing more.