“Louder Than Bombs” is the English-language debut of Norwegian director Joachim Trier, and his third film to date. Gene (Gabriel Byrne, “The 33” and “In Treatment”) stars as a father who is failing at his attempts to hold his family together following the death of his wife, Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert).
Isabelle was a world-renowned photographer who spent her career in war-torn countries capturing the horrors of war. Throughout the film, she is presented to the audience through flashbacks, and we get to know her rather intimately through this unique way of storytelling. Perhaps it was the horrors that she captured through her camera lens or the lengthy periods of time that she spent away from her family, but we witness her slow descent into depression.
Traveling and taking pictures in foreign countries became an addiction to Isabelle, and each time she returned to her family she became more and more withdrawn. The fatal car accident that took her life may have been an accident, or it may have been a suicide, but as Gene’s son Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) says, “There’s no story in a car accident, you know, so people have to make one up. They have to invent something so that they have something to blame.”
Jonah is working towards his Ph.D., but despite the outward appearance of his success, he is struggling with a failing marriage, infidelity and a newborn baby. Conrad (David Druid), Jonah’s younger brother, is a social misfit who seems to be impacted the most by the loss of his mother. Coupled with his low hierarchical status on the high school totem pole, Gene and Jonah seem to recognize Conrad's need for help / empowerment.
Trier wonderfully takes on the difficult task of telling such a delicate tale. The film is put together in such a way that you get to explore the family dynamic as well as these individual characters equally, while keeping the viewer engaged. The acting in the film is quite superb, and adds an element of believability to the study of all of the characters.
This film is worth seeing, though perhaps as a rental rather than as a movie theater experience.