Armand
A chic, sleek, confident woman marches into a prestigious looking school and is thanked by junior teacher Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) for responding so quickly to their request for her attendance. But Sunna, who we've seen propelled into this situation with little in the way of guidelines by headmaster Jarle (Øystein Røger, "Oslo, August 31st") and school nurse Ajsa (Vera Veljovic-Jovanovic), won't tell Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve, "A Different Man") why she's there until another set of parents, Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen, "Thelma," "The Innocents") and Anders (Endre Hellestveit, "22 July"), arrive. After having been assured it's nothing serious, Elizabeth will be shocked to hear the accusations made against her six year-old son "Armand."
Laura's Review: B+
Why oh why was Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve never a part of the 2025 awards season conversation? Justly lauded for her turn in 2021's "The Worst Person in the World," Reinsve delivers an even more complex performance here. The film is also a notable feature debut for writer/director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, who explores everything from the entitlements and pitfalls of celebrity to familial violence, both eroding institutional authority already guilty of dereliction of duty. And while his incorporation of surreal moments of modern dance don't entirely work, they give Reinsve yet another outlet for expression she handles with finesse.
Tøndel teases out his story from three perspectives, that of Elizabeth, who, like us, initially has the least information; that of the insightful Sunna, who is trying to navigate the complex situation thrust upon her fairly; and that of Anders, who is the connective tissue between Elizabeth, who we will learn has taken him into her confidence in the past, and his wife, who we will learn is the sister of Elizabeth's late husband.
Elizabeth is a famous actress whose husband has recently died in a tragic accident, making her the subject of media attention and causing many at the school to be starstruck, something initially suspected of Sunna. When we hear the charges against Armand, who reportedly attacked his cousin Jon when he wished to play with another, threatening (?) to anally rape him, we are shocked. Jon was found crying in the bathroom by a school janitor, who found him with his pants down. By springing the information on both Elizabeth and his audience after having painted Elizabeth as a controversial character, Tøndel immediately puts his thumb on the scale for Sarah and Anders, but his will be a film of continually shifting perspective, a major one hinted at by the barely suppressed resentment in Ellen Dorrit Petersen's performance.
Reinsve and Petersen are both tied together and distinguished by their hairstyles, both women having swept their hair back into artful ponytails. But while Reinsve's auburn hair is sleeky styled, Petersen's explodes in artful chaos, that of a rushed housewife. Reinsve counters accusations with analytical intelligence, noting that while Jon has been given the liberty of voicing his story, her son, Armand, has not. She also points out that her six-year-old son would be very unlikely to know about the things he supposedly said and did, yet the actress also shows vulnerability, wavering in her own belief when speaking privately with Anders. In return, Petersen implies that things within Elizabeth's household were far from normal. The pile-on becomes so unbearable, Reinsve eventually reacts with uncontrollable laughter, carrying out a breakdown which goes on for minutes on end. Sarah will
later corner she and her brother's former teacher Jarle with a shocking insinuation. Hellestveit acts as the film's moral compass.
The school's triumvirate is less interesting, Vaulen standing out with her tentatively sensitive performance while Røger's Jarle seems merely to want to take the easiest route possible. Veljovic-Jovanovic's Ajsa, the school nurse, is a symbol of incompetence, having to continually leave the conversation due to excessive nose bleeds. The film's ensemble is fleshed out by a janitor who shares a pas de deux with Elizabeth, other teachers and parents on campus to celebrate the end of school term who will also engage in interpretive dance. We will not see the titular Armand until the film's final scene.
"Armand" is a psychological thriller nestled within an investigative procedural. Tøndel keeps turning the screws in a standout debut kicked into higher gear by Reinsve and Petersen.
Robin's Review: B+
IFC Films opens "Armand" in select theaters on 2/7/25, wider on 2/14/25.
