User Reviews

I'll readily admit I am a fan of the acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer, having especially liked two of his previous films "O'Horten" and "Kitchen Stories". Here again Hamer displays his satirical and droll humor along with his impeccable cinematography. However, this movie will probably appeal to a very thin slice of filmgoers with its extremely slow pacing, and I think you really have to like this kind of tongue-in-cheek humor to enjoy it.

Ane Dahl Torp is simply captivating here as Marie, who works for the Norwegian Metrology Service, and has been entrusted to transport the all-important national kilo of Norway to a conference in Paris. There, at the BIPM (International Bureau of Weights and Measures), the kilo will be weighed and re-calibrated, if necessary. Meanwhile her life is filled with troubles as she's going through a divorce, and her father Ernst (Stein Winge) has suffered a severe heart attack.

However, once in Paris, she meets Pi, most ably portrayed by Laurent Stocker, who's a professor and scientist, but after difficulties in his life has chosen to get away from it all by being a part-time gardener at BIPM and is conducting a project on birdsong. He's living with his mother who has Alzheimer's. I thought the chemistry between Marie and Pi really was quite believable and worked well.

All in all, this film will certainly not appeal to everyone, but for those who like Hamer's droll and satirical humor you may very well end up enjoying this movie as well, with Torp and Stocker's performances adding much here.

This movie nicely contrasts the emotional upheaval of the main character's life (divorce, father's illness) with her job...that of precise and careful measurement. The humor is understated and sometimes catches you unawares. The conference she attends in Paris is very funny (and a nice commentary on how seriously we sometimes take ourselves). But the suffering she experiences later provides a nice departure from the earlier humor. And, not to give too much away, the final scene ends with a completely inevitable but completely appropriate joke. You'll have to watch it if you want to know what I mean. Ultimately, I recommend it but be warned that it is a quiet, subtle and in some ways very traditional and slow moving story. I liked it.

Nerdy woman meets nerdy man in Paris. She has a special relationship with, not garden gnomes, but the Norwegian standard kg, which she carries around all the time. And she also has a special relationship with her farther. Even use of colors bring back memories of Amelie. Not a very original movie for all those reasons.