ŒCold Fever¹ explores life in silent void of Iceland

Thursday, May 23, 1996

By Dina Gachman

Daily Bruin Staff

A film centered around a road trip through Iceland may not sound
too enticing. A landscape of never-ending snowy, stark emptiness. A
beat- up car continually stuck in the ice. A reluctant Japanese
businessman hating every step of his journey. Surprisingly, Fridrik
Thor Fridriksson’s "Cold Fever" spices up this story with ghosts,
boiled sheep’s heads and enough talent to command your attention
and awe.

Atsushi Hirata (Masatoshi Nagase) can’t wait for his yearly
break from a dull, structured job in Japan. He plans on playing a
ridiculous amount of golf in Hawaii, but his traditional
grandfather has another idea for Hirata. The grandson is both
angered and annoyed by the request to visit Iceland instead of a
warm tropical island. After a semi-spiritual experience with his
television, Hirata decides to fulfill his grandfather’s request to
honor the souls of his parents who died in a remote river in
Iceland. Awaiting him is an adventure that will challenge his
patience and awaken his spirituality.

Internationally renowned director Fridriksson ("Children of
Nature," "Movie Days") takes a moving, humorous look at a seemingly
bland subject. He decorates the vast void of the Icelandic winter
with eerie ghosts, twisted hitchhikers and enough oddities to
seduce even the most reluctant viewer into a sojourn in his
country. Hirata meets an American woman who is obsessed with
documenting funerals, an old Icelandic couple who feed him the
popular dish of boiled sheep heads (the wife relishes the
eyeballs), and a husband and wife from New Jersey (played by Lili
Taylor and Fisher Stevens) traveling through the country robbing
and murdering like a banished Bonnie and Clyde.

Fridriksson’s subdued visual style, mixed with his affinity for
the absurd, calls to mind the originality of American director Jim
Jarmusch ("Dead Man"). Written by Fridriksson and Jim Stark, who
has served as producer for filmmakers such as Jarmusch, Alexander
Rockwell and Gregg Araki, "Cold Fever" represents intelligent,
independent cinema at its best. Most road movies represent some
sort of spiritual journey, but here many of the conventions and
clichés of this genre are missing. The dialogue is minimal,
which can become a little frustrating.

But this emphasis on the movement, instead of a lot of
unnecessary words, reflects Hirata’s emotions. He rejects the
Japanese traditions practiced by his grandfather, but is forced
into honoring them despite the hardships of the Iceland’s landscape
and its people. Hirata’s inner strife builds as the strange customs
of the country begin to muddle his brain and his nerves. He is
alone, isolated, and unable to truly connect with any of the people
he meets. What he doesn’t realize is that this alienation heightens
his senses and brings him closer to the spirituality that he
ardently rejects.

Tying together all of "Cold Fever’s" odd plot twists is the
brilliance of Nagase’s performance. Like Fridriksson, the actor
uses subtlety to emphasize the more soulful aspects of the story.
When he meets the funeral aficionado, Hirata listens to her
quietly, but his silence is a powerful indication of his building
frustration. Likewise, his encounter with an Icelandic spirit girl
is met with a quiet perplexity. Even so, its effect on Hirata is
obvious. Nagase is an actor whose minimalistic acting adds a
cerebral beauty to a similarly minimalistic film. And it is not
until "Cold Fever" ends, and the story is digested, that the grace
of Nagase’s performance is truly appreciated.

All of the elements of "Cold Fever" come together to form a
spiritual, philosophical, humorous whole. If the slow pace doesn’t
bother you, Fridriksson’s movie is a refreshingly unique take on
the classic road trip in cinema.

FILM: "Cold Fever". Directed by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson.
Starring Masatoshi Nagase, Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens. Opens
today. Grade: B+

Ari Matthiasson and Masatoshi Nagase in "Cold Fever," a film by
Fridrik Thor Fridriksson.