What do non-norwegians think of this?

Hei,

I'm French and I've just watched it, therefore I match your criteria.
Overall I liked this film. I haven't seen many Norwegian movies ("Vi er russ" is one of them) but I love Scandinavia and was happy to watch it. I only wished my Swedish was better to be able to understand Norwegian without reading the english subtitles.
All the characters were well chosen and I was almost moved to see the main character's ex-GF and communist friend, a few years later, during the funerals.
If you've suggestions of movies like this one, I'm all ears! vi ses!

Hey! I'm English and Dutch and I watched this movie last night. I thought it was well shot with well chosen characters, and an adequate amount of character development. The scenery was beautiful and the screenplay was poignant, charming, funny at different parts. Andresen managed to change the mood from light hearted to sad in a matter of seconds and he had me punching myself when he broke up with his girlfriend! He managed to engage the audience and convey the story of Jarle's childhood, his abusive father and the breaking of his chains, the story of him becoming a man. I loved the movie, one of the best I have seen in a while.

Im danish (yes I could write in danish since our languages are so similar, but ill do english, since this is an english site) and the movie was pretty good, but it also seems a bit like anti-alcohol propaganda, I know a few alcoholics and they can handle their alcohol without getting unstable and violent, and at the point the mother got drunk too just "to show how he was" I just thought: wtf, nobody in this family can handle their drinks!?

The father had serious mental issues, the alcohol wasnt the real problem, it just enhanced how he really was.