A cold-blooded murder in Iceland

Iceland is a very foreign and different looking place but murder is no different there than anywhere else. "Jar City (Mýrin)" hammers this point home, both literally and figuratively. Baltasar Kormákurs directs the adaptation of the popular mystery novel by Arnaldur Indridason and the result is a detached, cold, restrained look at a murder, at least at first. A homicide detective named Erlendur (Ingvar E. Sigurdsson) calmly leads the investigation into the murder of a local but eventually the murder is part of a much bigger story that may involve a serial killer.

At the same time a young child dies, but she has not been murdered. She has succumbed to cancer. There is a connection although we don't know it at the time. Erlendur is the one that takes us on the journey to pull all of the parts of the story together. He is calm but then again, everyone except for a crazed, incarcerated murderer is calm. Whether that is part of the makeup of the Icelandic people or the way the story is written is unclear but the guess is that it's a bit of both. Erlendur is a salt and pepper haired detective that likes eating fast food. When he drives up to a drive-thru, the server asks if it will be "the usual". He responds with, "Yes, I’ll have a sheep’s head". We later watch him enjoy his meal.

Erlendur is low key and seems not particularly bright or stupid. He's a working stiff who just happens to be a homicide detective. He smokes non-stop, much to the chagrin of his assistant, who often is forced to ride in cars with him while he puffs away. As his investigation progresses, we learn that he has a daughter with a drug problem but despite whatever personal problems he may have, he retains an ironically dry wit. This is expressed clearly when he states that the crime is "a typical Icelandic murder, messy and pointless."

The story evolves from a simple murder into a web of murder, rape, police incompetence and criminality, and genetic abnormality that traces back thirty years. Tying it all together is a little bit convoluted and includes a flashback that is at first extremely confusing.

"Jar City" is shot with a blue tint to it that renders it sterile and antiseptic. You get the feeling that you could eat off people's floors or even off of the street. The background music is part religious in nature and part Bernard Hermann of Hitchcock fame. Unfortunately, the tenseness that accompanies all Hitchcock films is missing. In an effort to make everything understated, Kormákurs goes too far, leaving us feeling a little bit Stepfordish, like most of the characters in "Jar City". It might have been wiser to jar the audience, at least a little bit.