ARMAND - Mark Reviews Movies

Armand, IFC Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 29, 2024

Making his feature debut, writer/director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel is very cagey with information in Armand. On the surface, it's the story of a seemingly ordinary meeting between school officials and the parents of two students. Beneath the surface, it's still that story, only with a lot of hidden pain and secrets that are too terrible to say aloud.

Tøndel isn't exactly subtle about the revelation of those secrets or, for that matter, much of anything in this movie. It begins as an evasive dance of dialogue, between characters who talk around a lot of things, and back story, as the connections between those characters and what everyone knows but won't talk about come to gradual light. There's plenty of potential tension in this setup, since the well-being and fates of two 6-year-old boys are on the line, but the filmmaker's approach withholds so much that's important, while laying on extraneous conflict and bits of stylistic flourish, that the core of this story and these character are kept at a distance.

The movie starts with the boys' teacher Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) preparing for a conference between the parents of those students. She gets some advice from the school's principal Jarle (Øystein Røger), who insists the young and new educator show a lot of discretion and sensitivity in the conversation, and counselor Ajsa (Vera Veljovic Jovanovic), who has random nosebleeds that cause quite the scene when they don't stop.

Oh, the school's fire alarm is also broken, meaning that it will sound in certain rooms without warning, although it's quite convenient that it remains silent for the whole of the back-and-forth conversations and arguments, considering how many times the alarm sounds in just the introduction. Like Tøndel's screenplay, it's apparently waiting for the perfect moment to interrupt the proceedings with a new source of conflict.

As for the parents, Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) is the widowed mother of Armand, who has been accused of a particularly serious act of violence against another student. Given just how severe the allegations are and the fact that Jarle eventually announces that the police will almost certainly need to become involved, it's a genuine surprise that the principal and counselor aren't part of the talks from the beginning, but if they were, Tøndel likely wouldn't have been able to tease us with the mystery of what might have happened between the two boys. The contrivances here may keep piling up, but in hindsight, they're present from the very start.

On the other side are the parents of the other boy. They're Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), who seems to have something personal against Elisabeth, and Anders (Endre Hellestveit), who is sympathetic toward the single mother despite what her son has been accused of doing to his own son. Sarah does have a problem with Elisabeth that goes deeper than what Armand might have done to her son, the widow's currently paused career as an actress, and Elisabeth's status as one of the popular parents of the school community. Even that vendetta and the connection between the two women, though, might be too much to reveal here, if only because Tøndel does avoid making it clear until after the two mothers have started making the debate quite personal.

They argue a lot, not only about the accusation against Armand, but also about each other's behavior during the meeting. Sarah doesn't think Elisabeth is taking it seriously, and to be fair, Elisabeth isn't, considering that she has a laughing fit that lasts for multiple minutes over an inside joke of which no one else in the room is aware.

Tøndel has a strange habit of regularly undercutting the tension. There's lengthy scene of Elisabeth laughing for no apparent reason, to be sure, but of course, Ajsa's nosebleed returns at a most inappropriate time, leading to a bloody mess that, within the context, is too absurd not to be seen an intentional bit of humor.

There are odd, dreamy scenes here, too, such as when Jarle has a conversation with Elisabeth about her dead husband, a former and beloved student, only for the reality of that talk to be called into question. Some other parents arrive and start debating what happened between the boys (because Sunna breaks the one hard and fast rule the principal put to her), and their admiration for Elisabeth is communicated in an interpretative dance at one point. Maybe that's not a broken fire alarm but a legitimate one warning of a gas leak in the building. It could explain why everyone starts coming across as disinterested as things escalate and so many characters experience hallucinations throughout the movie.

What Tøndel eventually reveals in Armand, having to do with abuse and trauma and how people either cover up the behavior of those they love or don't see it for what it is, is worthwhile. The performances from Reinsve, as a woman who still feels compelled to keep a secret to maintain a certain appearance, and Petersen, as it becomes Sarah's vendetta against Elisabeth is hiding something about her, are strong, too. The movie's odd tonal shifts, odder narrative evasiveness, and most odd fall into melodrama, though, prevent it from feeling as serious as the material suggests it to be.

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