Erik Poppe's Troubled Water is kind of a "taffy-pull" movie, the sort of piece that gets stretched and manipulated far beyond the point of needing it, all in the interest of putting on a show. You might be fooled initially, what with the hand-held camera giving the impression of naturalism, our protagonist and his heavy burden shuffling through a beleaguered existence with a down-cast gaze... Dogme 95 by way of Iñárritu. Don't. Poppe shows his hand soon enough and it becomes painfully clear that he would much rather make something "important" than honest.

The story revolves around the death of a young boy some years prior and the teenager responsible, now, in present day, getting released from prison after serving…

Here is an absolutely riveting Norweigan film that had my rapt attention throughout. It tells the story of Jan (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen) who is sent to prison after he and another guy were convicted in the disappearance of a young boy. Still a young man, Jan is released from prison and takes a job as an organist for a church in the same town in which he committed his crime. He becomes involved with the church's priestess Anna (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and becomes a father figure to her young son, Jens. When the mother -- Anges (Trine Dyrholm) of the boy whose death Jan was responsible sees him playing the church organ, she becomes obsessed with making him admit…

Jan Thomas was a teenager when he was sentenced for his part in the death of a 5 year old boy. We join the film with the release of Jan from prison. Upon his release Jans finds employments as the organist in his local church.

The film explores the pain, the grief and the suffering of the parents of the dead boy. The coming to terms with their loss and their understandable need for answers as they attempt to make some sense of the past so they can let go and move on.

For Jans it's more about coming to terms with his part in the boys death, his remorse and his personal guilt and the new challenges he faces…