UNO’s Aksel Hennie Returns To The Big Screen With LONSJ!

Ah, Aksel, I’ve missed you.

Norway’s Aksel Hennie is, to my mind, one of the very best actors of his generation in the world today.  I first became aware of him thanks to a significant role in the greatly under seen Hawaii, Oslo and he established himself as an impressive talent to watch with UNO, a film he not only stars in but also wrote and directed.  UNO should have been the start of great things for Hennie, the film traveling to major festivals all around the world and winning Hennie well deserved comparisons to Denmark’s Nicholas Winding Refn but he’s been conspicuously absent from the big screen ever since.  It’s not that he hasn’t been working, it’s just that things keep falling apart.  He was at one point attached to play the lead in the ongoing series of Varg Veum crime films but dropped out of that to pursue the lead role in the upcoming big budget epic WWII story Max Manus - a role he landed - and before you knew it a few years had passed.  Well, he’s back ...

The film is Lønsj, a drama from Pal Sletaune’s company, 4 1/2, which is in itself a very good sign because 4 1/2 simply does not ever produce bad films.  Twitch fave Naboer?  That was 4 1/2.  Last year’s festival darling Reprise?  Yeah, that was them, too.  Here’s the synopsis on this one:

Lønsj is a multi-plot drama about five people who all live in the same neighbourhood at Majorstua in Oslo. While Christer is down in the basement laundry room, he suddenly remember he’s got his houserent money in the shirt pocket. In an attempt to save the money, he disconnects the main fuse in order to stop the washing machine. As the caretaker puts in a new fuse, an old man is fumbling with the fuses in a fusebox upstairs and dies instantly. His daughter, Leni is now alone for the first time in her life. As the fresh mother Heidi is in the washroom to get her laundry, she discovers that the machines have stopped. She is in a hurry, and has to bring with her the wet clothes. Without being aware of it, Christer has set unavoidable processes in motion.

A teaser and full theatrical trailer have just released - you’ll find both below the break in the Twitch Player - and looks to be impressive stuff, exceptionally well shot with a stellar cast full of familiar faces.  And, ironically, one of the least familiar is Hennie’s, the man undergoing a remarkable physical transformation since UNO, going from beefy body builder in that film to a far more effete look in this ... it seriously took a couple looks before I even realized it was him.