Órói (Icelandic) [Jitters]

Jitters is a coming of age drama set in Iceland. This film is like watching a group of teenagers through a secret camera and following the happenings in their life. The incidents can be positive, tense, romantic, eye openers or whatever but it does provide a fun , positive look at today's youngsters focussing specifically on Iceland.

This is a group of trouble proned friends lead by Gabriel. On a 3 week English Immersion trip to Manchester, he shares a room with Marcus who is free spirited. He brings some character in life of Marcus and on their last day, they share a kiss. It is a short lived romance as it ends when they both come back home. They do keep sharing text messages though. Friends and family notice a change but he decides to keep a secret. We also get to know the lives of all of his friends. His best friend is having troubles with his girlfriend. He wants to score with her but she is not so easy to budge. We also have Greta, who just cant live with her mother anymore and decided to find a place for rent. She is also in search of her father and finally fins the man who could possibly be her father. She just wants to finish this so that she can move on. We also have Stella who likes Gabriel and who lives with her over protective grandmother who doesn't allow to let Stella live the life she wants to. She is always interfering. In between the lives of all of these friends, Gabriel is trying to find his own identity. When he and Marcus meet again, sparks are there but no one does anything. Gabriel is upset when he sees Marcus getting physical with a girl which ends up in a fight. When his friends interfere, Marcus tells them that Gabriel is gay. The friends are finally accepting and now it is time for Gabriel to move on and decide what he wants to do with Marcus.

The excitement and traumas of a group of Icelandic teenagers as they tentatively enter young adulthood, is very effectively and brilliantly captured in this film. The entire ensemble cast is very good and very very well acted by the whole group of teenagers. I personally feel that if the focus could have been given more on Gabriel's relationship rather than focussing so much in details on the 2 girls, it would have been clear on what exact;y is going on in his head because he is always so quiet. But I guess in the process the film could also have missed out on a big chunk of audience. Overall, a pretty good job. I would have loved it even more if it was somewhat focussed rather than all over the group of friends but that's just me.

The film although showing young teenage drama still is insightful and remains true in showing emotions. (5.5/10)