TIFF Actress-To-Watch: Ine Marie Wilmann in "Homesick"
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 at 3:08PM 
Great moments in production design: In the first shot of Homesick, our heroine -- and I use the term ironically since she’s no role model -- is seen with her head cupped in her hands and thrown back to stretch / express annoyance. Beside her, out of focus in the psychiatrists office is a statue in roughly the same pose. There are other little touches like this that suggest that Charlotte ( Ine Marie Wilmann) is something of a mimic... and that director Anne Sewitsky (of Happy Happy fame) are really feeling this project.
When Charlotte returns to proper posture we see an actress that looks suspiciously like Kate Hudson... or is it Malin Akermann? No, wait early Drew Barrymore? In a very happy stroke of casting luck, these unsought comparisons add extra resonance to the very thing the movie is going for. Charlotte, you see, really wants to be someone else... or at leave have their lives. Her parents paid her little attention and she's never even met her half brother. She's terribly lonely and latches on to everyone around her. This is most obvious in a beautifully dramatized friendship with a co-worker, that verges on symbiotic in a playful and tactile dance between them in the dance studio where they work.
But the crux of the drama of the picture is that Charlotte and her half brother do meet and go almost straight to the taboo rutting. Emotional calamities multiply all around them, as one would expect.
Homesick feels a bit slight and sketchy despite its provocations, but Wilmann is terrific in the leading role. Her face is fluid with emotion, but more importantly it's as if she's continually scrolling and searching for the right one to express. She lets other people decide for her all too often. Hence her terrible decision making. B
Delicious Related News:
Wilmann won the Norwegian Best Actress Oscar (The Amanda) for her role in Homesick. And though the film itself was passed over as Norway's official Oscar submission this year, Wilmann has an even better reward coming: she'll reunite with her current director to play the legendary Norwegian gold medalist figure skater turned Hollywood novelty actress Sonja Henje who became one of the richest women in the world by the 1940s. Wilmann has already logged a lot of time at the ice rink in preparation. Naturally the movie will include other Old Hollywood characters and an international cast. It sounds like a superb idea for a motion picture so best of luck to all.
Reader Comments (5)
So happy to know that a Sonja Henje movie is around the corner. If I had Megan Ellison money It would already exist.
Wow-just read more about Henje. I didn't realize about her Nazi connections and her relationships with Tyrone Power and Liberace. Sounds like an incredibly plum part-if this were an American picture, we'd already be talking about her inevitable Oscar nomination. Good on her for landing such a great part, can't wait to see Homesick.
When Canadian figure skater Elizabeth Manley won silver at the 1988 Olympics, rumours
swirled about a possible Sonja Henie biopic. Manley looked an awful lot like her. And - of course - she was already a world class skater. No acting background, though, and in the end the film didn't materialize. Glad to hear another Henie project's in the offing. And featuring an actress of proven ability. If they're really going for an "international" cast, does that mean we might finally see Zac Efron playing Tyrone Power someplace other than in my imagination?.
I am assuming the first image in this post was taken from the Australian version of the Scandinavian Film Festival. I took great delight, after seeing the movie, in thinking that most of the middle-aged middle-class middle-of-the-road patrons (I live in Canberra) were going to a festival where the main promotional piece was a scene of incest!
Pretty much agree with everything you said about the movie, though.
This movie about Henje sounds very exciting. Am curious for the international cast.