Hope

Maria Sødahl's considers the extreme emotions provoked by a medical emergency with an impressive force of clarity.

A melancholy but highly satisfying adult drama.

Given the autobiographical nature of the piece, it's bracing to see a life-or-death story handled with this combination of intimate emotion and stoic detachment. This plays right into Skarsgard's wheelhouse, while Hovig gets to do most of the emoting.

Sødahl, who mined her own brush with cancer when writing the film, teases out the unexpected byways where hope is not just crushed but nurtured.

Hope is actually a showcase for the less internationally renown Andrea Bræn Hovig, who delivers a fantastically wrenching performance as a mother faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis.

It takes remarkable insight and confidence to create a devastating portrait of a marriage inside a film about a woman facing her own mortality. That's what writer/director Maria Sødahl does with searing Hope.

The wonder of "Hope" is how much of Bræin Hovig and Skarsgård do without dialogue, just with a look, a gesture, a silent scream of despair or teeth grinding in resignation.

Andrea Braein Hovig and Stellan Skarsgard captivate and the film manages to be uplifting and authentic.

The dance of emotions is powerful. [Full review in Spanish]

Søhdal tenderly depicts a marriage that is indeed a strong partnership, with years of built-up intimacies, and yet also how that relationship can be stifling, in part because of gendered expectations.