From religious talk show host in Ferrara's Mary to insurance investigator in A Little Trip to Heaven, American actor Forest Whitaker has certainly had an interesting year in cinema, opting for projects with European funding and sensibilities. In the first English language feature of acclaimed Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykjavík) Whitaker becomes entangled in an insurance scam that will have consequences for him personally as well as professionally. 

I would be spoiling too much of the story if I provided further details here -- which comes in handy because I am not sure I understood everything perfectly. Despite this, however, Kormákur’s directorial flair and the script by Kormákur and Edward Martin Weinman surely made me believe that the film would survive a second, more conscientious viewing. The director also has a strong visual sense, turning the barren wastelands of Minnesota into the visual equivalent of the Reagan era of corporate greed in which the story is set. At times the director does indulge a bit too much in visual Hollywood clichés that do not always make perfect sense even if they look really good; a nightly scene in the pouring rain comes to mind, in which people get wet to the bone standing outside and in which no-one seems to have had the bright idea to either go and talk inside the car, in a roadside café or even just under an umbrella.