[3.5]--Make way for the pregnant Norwegian with a gun.
Jenny J.J.I. | That Lives in Carolinas | 03/04/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
""Chlorox, Ammonia and Coffee" also known as "Salto" features a host of stories, which intertwine and finally come together in an ending featuring an up close and personal birthing scene, as well as everything else but a fireworks display. Exhaustion is what I felt after trying to keep up with these mile-a-minute mixture it was rather entertaining film. We first focus on the singing and very pregnant Maria (Benedikte Lindbeck), who is expecting a child with Erik (Dennis Storhøi), who is about to go bankrupt for a second time and more concerned of his client's daughter and the millions Erik is missing in order to launch his new product. His company is already in big debt, and Erik ends up stealing Maria's money, leaving her and their child, five year old Stian, penniless.
On the other side we meet a guy by the name of Jesus (Fares Fares), who runs a colorful vegetable store and greets everyone with love, while old-age pensioner Gunvor, Erik's mother, steals in the stores and sells rohypnol to teenager Elin. Elin's mother, midwife Iris, pushes her daughter and also her fear of cancer away, always running between women in labor and policeman Odd, whom she enjoys watching from a safe distance while he makes somersaults on the trampoline - in between chasing criminals around town or waiting for the sap to rise. His brother Martin spends his time reading about women who love too much and dreams about being reunited with Gunvor, the love of his life who left him.
This turned out to be a good and transmittable Norwegian film. Director Mona J. Hoel keeps the many characters spinning with equal doses of humor and pain, all the while posing questions about the nature of life and love. Full of dreams and gentle irony, "Chlorox, Ammonia and Coffee" asks what the good is in the order of cleanliness when you don t have the courage to take risks.
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