Thelma (2017)

Director: Joachim Trier
Stars: Eili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen
Runtime: 116 minutes

Performances: 8/10
Screenplay: 4/10
Special Effects: N.A.
Costumes/Makeup: 6/10
Editing: 6/10
Cinematography: 8/10
Score/Soundtrack: 8/10

Verdict: When the credits started rolling at the end of the movie, I thought to myself: "This might be one of the best films I've seen in a while". And then I started thinking about it. "Thelma" is a Norwegian production that tells the story of, well, Thelma, a college student who has been living her entire life in a strict religious household, and that suddenly began experiencing weird seizures when she started developing feelings towards one of her female friends. Eili Harboe plays the title character, and she's absolutely brilliant in it. She's truly believable as this girl held captive by her own feelings and emotions. Ola Flottum's score was also superb, perfectly capturing the creepy atmosphere of the movie. Finally, Jakob Ihre's cinematography is remarkable. Remarkable to the point where it successfully distracted me from the poorly written script, that I only realized was as such after thinking about it for a little while. Without getting into spoilers, there's a major element in the film that can be considered of supernatural nature and that is not very well explained, resulting in some scenes not making a lot of sense when you truly think about them. The movie was also a little slow and didn't justify a runtime of nearly 2 hours, in my opinion. "Thelma" really felt like a perfectly cooked steak that unfortunately is tainted by a bad aftertaste, and that's too bad.  

Final Grade: 6/10