Head Above Water

Unlike "Feeling Minnesota", in which Cameron Diaz also appears, Head Above Water is a successful black comedy/thriller. The suspense is constant without being hair-raising, the humour grim and the plot quite ingenious. The British film magazine Sight & Sound reports that the film is a remake of a Norwegian film by Nils Gaup. I would love to get my hands on that one...

The married couple George and Nathalie are on holiday on a small island with Nathalie's old friend Lance as their only neighbour. In fact they are alone on the island. George is a somewhat older, respectable man who, when he is not on holiday, is a judge. Nathalie is young and beautiful. One gathers that George has got her more or less back on an even keel after various kinds of substance abuse. When George and Lance go off fishing for a day, Nathalie's old boyfriend Kent pays an unannounced visit, although he does claim that he announced his arrival on a postcard. What happens between the two the film does not reveal, but the next morning Nathalie finds George dead in bed. Heart failure, she assumes, since he has a bad heart. At that very moment George and Lance return. Nathalie fears George's jealousy so much that she panics and hides the body. From here the story gets rolling and becomes wilder and wilder. A surprising and grotesque story.