I Travel Alone – Jeg reiser alene (2011)

Directed by: Stian Kristiansen | 90 minutes | drama | Actors: Gustaf Hammarsten, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Rolf Kristian Larsen, Henriette Steenstrup, Marte Aarseth, Emilie Houge, Loekke Calle, Amina Eleonora Bergrem, Ina Therese Lerner Grevstad

‘I Travel Alone’ hits the spot right away, when it comes to her blunt and straightforward humor. Even though this movie isn’t a real comedy. It all starts with that one morning when literature student Jarle Klepp (Rolf Kristian Larsen) wakes up next to a fourth-grade girl. The question soon arises whether they did it ‘safely’ that night. Jarle tries to find out in his own way. The tone is set. What follows after this prelude is a human story, here and there dressed up with no nonsense humor that mainly translates into direct conversations between the characters.

‘I Travel Alone’ is the second part of a triptych based on the books by the Norwegian Tore Renberg. In this second part, Jarle is twenty-five years old and he is studying literature at the University. In the first part ‘The Man Who Loved Yngve’ Jarle is still a teenager. About 175,000 cinema tickets were sold for this film in Norway. After the rave reviews for this first part, we are now following this character again. This time Jarle discovers that he has a nine-year-old daughter. In fact, she’s coming to stay at his house for a week. The news turns Jarle’s world upside down. He soon notices that the situation is seriously affecting his life.

The simple and naive way in which major events in the main character’s life happen makes for a smile. ‘I Travel Alone’ deliberately does not seem to spend much time on its construction and introduction. Not the how and why, but the effects are central. So plenty of time to zoom in on that. It makes Jarle an exciting character. Because almost in a soap-like way, the filmmakers can let Jarle experience everything.

Is ‘I Travel Alone’ the prototype example of drama? No definitely not. Although the film is scaled that way. The 39-year-old writer Tore Renberg provided a basic story that contains real human drama, is often touching (kudos to the acting of the young Amina Eleonora Bergem), but contains enough absurd situations to not make it land too seriously. .