Culture clash evidently intrigues Icelandic director Fridrik Thor Fridiksson. His last film to get a UK release, Cold Fever, followed a bemused young Japanese guy marooned in Iceland to arrange his globetrotting parents' funeral.
In Falcons, the fish out of water is Simon (Keith Carradine), a world-weary American ex-con of Icelandic descent who's come to seek a quiet place to top himself. Then he runs into artistic free spirit Dúa (Margrét Vilhálmsdóttir), who may just possibly be his daughter, and the pair hook up to flee the country (along with Dúa's invaluable Icelandic falcon). Then a jealous local cop starts sniffing around...
Carradine, as ever, is the epitome of gaunt cool and the Icelandic scenery is stunning in its majesty. But sadly, Vilhálmsdóttir's Dúa, seemingly meant as kooky and lovable, comes across as infuriatingly ditsy, and the plot steadily abandons plausibility in favour of melodrama. Example? Check out the B-movie villains Simon clashes with in Hamburg...
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