Lamb (2021) A24/Horror RT: 106 minutes Rated R (some bloody violent images, sexuality/nudity) Director: Valdimar Johannsson Screenplay: Valdimar Johannsson and Sjon Music: Þórarinn Guðnason Cinematography: Eli Arenson Release date: October 8, 2021 (US) Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snaer Gudnason, Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson. Box Office: $3.2M (US) Spoken in Icelandic w/English subtitles
Rating: **
There was a time when I probably would have loved the weird Icelandic horror film Lamb. Had it come out 30 years ago when I was in my 20s, I would have been singing its praises to my less cinematically enlightened friends who wouldn’t venture anywhere near a movie with subtitles. Now that I’m in my 50s, I’m beginning to see things from their viewpoint. It would appear that my patience has worn out with art films that go out of their way to be as unconventional as possible. This description definitely applies to Lamb. I’m sure it will have its defenders and that’s great. For me, it’s another pretentious bore from A24.
The plot, such as it is, centers on an unhappy married couple, Maria (Rapace, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Ingvar (Gudnason, White Night Wedding), who run a farm in a remote area of Iceland. They barely talk as they go about their daily routine of plowing their land and feeding their livestock. We come to find out their sadness stems from losing their baby at birth. They’re blessed/cursed with a surrogate child, a half-lamb/half-human hybrid birthed by one of their sheep. They take it as their own, name it Ada and care for it like she’s a regular kid. At some point, Ingvar’s brother Petur (Haraldsson, The Witcher) shows up and throws off the new dynamic. He has a thing for Maria, a feeling that isn’t mutual. That’s about it.
For simplicity’s sake, I’ll start by telling you what I do like about Lamb. It’s moody and atmospheric. It makes nice use of the beautiful, bleak Icelandic landscapes. The performances are good. That’s it. The rest of it is a crashing bore. Although it runs only 106 minutes, it feels like it goes on forever without end. It drags on and on and on and on and on without making its intended points about loss, family, motherhood and man’s relationship with nature. Director Valdimar Johannsson, in his feature film debut, tries but doesn’t quite get there. It renders the whole exercise pointless and moot.
I’m just going to be honest and say I didn’t care for Lamb. I struggled to stay awake and couldn’t wait for it to be over. I fought the urge to scream “I WANT MY LIFE BACK!” through most of it. It left me feeling depressed and exhausted to the point where my wife could see something was off when she picked me up afterwards. The thing is I didn’t go into Lamb with a negative attitude. The trailer was both eerie and intriguing. I like the central idea of a traumatized couple raising a freak of nature. The makers do a fine job with the non-CGI hybrid creature and its slow reveal. It has one or two effective moments, but it’s not enough to sustain the entire picture.
Ultimately, I cannot recommend Lamb even though the small cast does a decent job with their thinly written characters. Initially, the dynamic between them is interesting, but it gets old fast. Also, Johannsson doesn’t expand on it as much as he should have. We don’t have enough to go on. In the end, Lamb feels half-done which is why this review is about half the length of the ones I usually write. That should tell you all you need to know about this disappointing horror-thriller.
