Jar City is an Icelandic mystery that mixes genetics with murder in a slick, well-shot production. The movie starts in on a young child who is dying of an unknown disease in a hospital. We are then introduced to a much older person who has been murdered in his home, hit over the head by a heavy ashtray. We learn that the victim was a rapist and was involved with two other ne'er-do-wells who rampaged freely back in the 70's. Two police detectives (Sigurðsson, Haraldsson) dig deep into the past to try to identify the murderer, but soon discover more than they bargained for. But how does any of this relate to the story of the young child in the beginning? (I could tell you if you wanted to know, because it's somewhat interesting medically and I don't think this movie is good enough to recommend just to find that little nugget of information out.)
Technically, the movie is a mixed bag. It has some very impressive cinematography (beautiful landscapes within artful compositions), but also has more than its fair share of underexposed, grainy scenes. The acting is acceptable given the somewhat bland and uninteresting characters, but there is nothing particularly memorable about any of it. Apparently the movie is based on a series of novels with the same characters, which explains why there are a lot of backstories that were hinted at but never fully explored. Similarly, the film itself has mostly superficial thematics that never get fleshed out. I feel as if this whole story is much better suited for literature than film, where you have time to think about the characters and the meaning of the events. In this movie, all you get is the murder mystery without any of the interesting textures that stick in your brain. You can watch it if it sounds interesting, but it's something you'll likely forget about soon after watching.IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805576/