"Magnus" has something to say about love, parenthood, sex and suicide but not necessarily in that order. The problem is that its pretensions get in the way of us caring about its characters and really understanding what it's trying to accomplish.
The title character is a lonely, confused teenager (played by Estonian pop star Kristjan Kasearu) who has attempted suicide at least twice. Much of the film centers around us watching Magnus as he wanders aimlessly through life, doing drugs with his dad, going to a brothel, asking his sister to have sex with him, etc. He seems totally bored and disinterested most of the time and while this may be part of his condition, it becomes contagious and we begin to feel the same way.
One of the problems lies with the performance of Kasearu, who while extremely handsome is also mostly expressionless and never allows us into Magnus' head or heart.
The other issue is with writer/director Kadri Kousaar's pretentious style which involves unnecessarily avant-garde camera angles and opaque lighting that quickly put us into an intellectual and emotional stupor. "Magnus" is a film that's so caught up in its own 'ideas' that it ends up leaving us cold.
The title character is a lonely, confused teenager (played by Estonian pop star Kristjan Kasearu) who has attempted suicide at least twice. Much of the film centers around us watching Magnus as he wanders aimlessly through life, doing drugs with his dad, going to a brothel, asking his sister to have sex with him, etc. He seems totally bored and disinterested most of the time and while this may be part of his condition, it becomes contagious and we begin to feel the same way.
One of the problems lies with the performance of Kasearu, who while extremely handsome is also mostly expressionless and never allows us into Magnus' head or heart.
The other issue is with writer/director Kadri Kousaar's pretentious style which involves unnecessarily avant-garde camera angles and opaque lighting that quickly put us into an intellectual and emotional stupor. "Magnus" is a film that's so caught up in its own 'ideas' that it ends up leaving us cold.