Virgin Mountain Review
By David Kempler
Magic Mountain
Out of the thirty or so films I had the chance to see at the Tribeca Film Festival, none made a stronger impression on me than the Icelandic production of Fúsi. "Virgin Mountain" is its title in English. Normally I don't agree with who wins awards at this festival, but this time we agreed. It won Best Narrative feature, Best Screenplay, and Gunnar Jónsson, as
Fúsi, won Best Actor.
Written and directed by Dagur Kari, it captures the essence of a man living outside of what most of us consider the norm. There is nothing really wrong with him, other than he is overweight and a loner, but he lives within a world of little social interaction. He still lives with his mom and her current boyfriend, who doesn't seem like a terrible person, but he also doesn't seem like the greatest guy either.
Fúsi does have a job. He handles baggage at the airport and keeps to himself while at work. He is shy and his co-workers only talk with him when they want to make fun of him. They aren't particularly cruel, but it's spelled out very clearly that he is not one of them.
One of the great things about this film is Fúsi's reactions to the way he is treated. He doesn't mope about it and thankfully there isn't an overly emotive string section on the soundtrack attempting to make us cry about his plight. We do feel bad for him, but it's not oppressive. Away from work, he spends almost his entire free time working on models of World War II battles. It is an elaborate setup and he has a friend that shares his love of the hobby. This friend encourages him to live a fuller life, but his low-key attempts are met only with shrugs.
On Fúsi's birthday, there is a little celebration at his home, with his mother and her boyfriend. They give him a gift certificate to country-and-western line dancing classes, so that he might be more likely to meet a woman and expand his horizons, in general. Fúsi goes to a class, but quickly exits in social discomfort. In the parking lot outside of class he meets Sjöfn
(Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir), another class attendee who too is lonely, though she is far less socially awkward. A relationship of sorts is formed and the rest of "Virgin Mountain" concerns how his meeting her impacts his life.
"Virgin Mountain" reminded me a bit of "Gigot", the underrated 1962 film directed by Gene Kelly and starring Jackie Gleason as a deaf-mute. It was one of Gleason's finest performances. Just like Gigot, Fúsi lives outside, although not as literally as Gigot. Both characters are large men who mean no harm to anyone and both are looking for more, even if they don't know it.
I hope "Virgin Mountain" becomes available to the general public soon, because you should see it. It's that rare kind of understated story that, although it is not a new idea, its execution is top-notch.
