{"id":1523,"date":"2017-09-13T16:28:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T20:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the4threel.com\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2019-07-03T16:03:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T20:03:39","slug":"valley-of-shadows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/valley-of-shadows\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley of Shadows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"column one-third mobile-one\"><div class=\"mcb-column-inner\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1851\" src=\"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-768x1088.jpg 768w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-723x1024.jpg 723w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-103x146.jpg 103w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-35x50.jpg 35w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-53x75.jpg 53w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows-741x1050.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width:767px) 700px, (max-width:1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/div><\/div>\n<br \/>\n<div class=\"column two-third mobile-one\"><div class=\"mcb-column-inner\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2reels.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"65\" height=\"28\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1882\" srcset=\"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2reels.png 65w, https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/2reels-50x22.png 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width:767px) 65px, 65px\" \/><br \/>\n <\/p>\n<h1>Valley of Shadows<\/h1>\n<p><strong>Release Date:<\/strong> October 20, 2017 (Norway)<br \/>\n<strong>Screened:<\/strong> September 10, 2017 (Toronto International Film Festival)<br \/>\n<strong>Runtime:<\/strong> 91 minutes<br \/>\n<strong>Rating:<\/strong> No Rating Yet<br \/>\n<strong>Studio:<\/strong> Film Farms; Them Girls Film; Anna Kron Film<br \/>\n<strong>Director:<\/strong> Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen<br \/>\n<strong>Cast:<\/strong> Adam Ekeli; Kathrine Fagerland<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>While there is stuff to admire in <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em>, this Norwegian import really wasn\u2019t my cup of tea. This is one of those movies that is long on atmosphere, but short on action or dialogue. A very European movie in style and nature, <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em> will only appeal to filmgoers who are into minimalist exercises in style.<\/p>\n<p>Little loner Aslak (Adam Ekeli) lives in the Norwegian countryside with his mother, Astrid (Kathrine Fagerland) and brother, who hasn\u2019t been seen for days. Aslak\u2019s friend, an older boy whom his mother is skeptical about Aslak hanging around with, relays to Aslak a tall tale about a werewolf that supposedly trolls the nearby dark forest. Of course, little inquisitive boys will be little inquisitive boys and Aslak goes exploring. Does this sound like the makings of a Grimm Fairy Tale, or what??<\/p>\n<p>And it should sound like the makings of a Grimm Fairy Tale. <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em> more than lives up to its title, with heavy fog and mist enveloping almost every shot. Director Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen favors lots of long, quiet takes with little or no speaking, lending his film a certain ethereal quality that suits the fairy tale aesthetic I feel like he was after. I read this film as a kind of allegory about a little boy on the cusp of manhood and, specifically, how this particular boy navigates this natural transition. Inherent in such a change in one\u2019s life comes a certain amount of fear and apprehension and Aslak\u2019s journey is all about traversing this emotional chasm. Little Adam Ekeli does a nice job of portraying a child on the verge of losing his innocence and the exploratory nature that accompanies this passage of life. Ekeli\u2019s wide, crystal clear blue eyes betray the wonder and excitement, as well as the anxiety, of a boy as he becomes a man. I mean, aren\u2019t all fairy tales really just stories that address life\u2019s changes, difficulties, and questions in a manner a child can comprehend? In this respect, the film works.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s just that it\u2019s slowwwwwwwww. With very little movement or dialogue, it may be tough for audiences accustomed to more action (not necessarily action movies, per se, but action on the screen) to remain engaged. This was the case with me. The film is certainly beautifully shot (courtesy of cinematographer Marius Matzow Gulbrandsen) and well acted, but there\u2019s just not much going on. <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em> will appeal to a very specific type of moviegoer. I am not that type of moviegoer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While there is stuff to admire in <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em>, this Norwegian import really wasn\u2019t my cup of tea. This is one of those movies that is long on atmosphere, but short on action or dialogue. A very European movie in style and nature, <em>Valley of Shadows<\/em> will only appeal to filmgoers who are into minimalist exercises in style.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,36,64,5,12,1],"tags":[62,30,38,7],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-fantasy","category-foreign","category-mystery","category-newish-releases","category-uncategorized","tag-adolescence","tag-exotic-locations","tag-film-festival","tag-two-reels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/revslider\/main\/valley-of-shadows.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39FsW-oz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the4threel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}