Oslo, 31 August is a 2011 Norwegian film directed by Joachim Trier. Very simple, yet very intense and moving.

Anders is a smart guy, he had a stable life, a happy family, a girlfriend who loved him, but let himself go into the terrible world of drugs. Began to consume various kinds of drugs and started gradually destroying what could have been a wonderful life. At the beginning of the film, Anders is already in rehab and what we watch is a day that is given by the clinic where he is at, to go to the city of Oslo to a job interview in order to be re-integrated into society and also took the opportunity to visit some friends.

In the film we see, apart from moments between Anders and friends, also a beautiful retrospective of what was the life of Anders so far, but only by the narration of himself. He tells us certain episodes of his life as he wanders through the city, and with a beautiful cinematography behind, very elegant images of the city of Oslo. Sometimes we also hear what other people say in the city, while Anders listens to them very closely, as if all they are saying is anything he would have done or liked to do next in his life. These are extremely beautiful moments to see, because while listening to all those words we realize the suffering of Anders without him even opening his mouth to say a word.

Anders Danielsen Lie, the actor who played the main character (curiously with the same name as his) did an extremely good job! We can feel all his pain, often just by his look and body language. Sometimes even manages to be disturbing only to look at him.

A film which portrays perfectly how hard it is for society to accept someone who has made ​​mistakes in the past, in this case, someone who was a drug addict. A society that most often do not know how to give a second chance. We also see the opposite side, of the person who no matter how hard tries to be insert back into society, feels completely apart of it. And unfortunately many people suffer from the fear of rejection, rejecting themselves doubting their own abilities and credibility.

Oslo, 31. August is a very deep film that contains much power at the social level, doing a good critique of society addressing very important moral values​​.

This movie's good at sadness and it pulls off some incredibly raw emotion at the very end, which is also why I think a lot of people are overrating this as a whole. As a character study, I think it's just fine. It doesn't do anything I find particularly mindblowing or deep. The character, acting and dialogue are lacking that distinguishable wow factor, nothing is bad but it plays a little too safe and predictable for my liking. I feel like they’re trying really hard to keep the protagonist identifiable and relatable for the audience, which is fine but it’s a bland choice cinematically. Shouldn’t this guy have a more challenging, difficult personality given his backstory? The directing and cinematography are also pretty average; I noticed this with _The Worst Person in the World_ as well but Trier's not that great when it comes to putting a specific vision to screen. It could be argued it looks and sounds more like something made for television. I won't argue it's a bad film, because its melancholy will stay with me for a while, but I've seen this type of premise done with much more compelling, focussed writing in something like _Taste of Cherry_.

6/10