AllMovie

Icelandic director Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson's gut-wrenching drama Thicker Than Water represents an extended meditation on bitterness and rage. The picture concerns an affluent and expectant couple, Pétur (Hilmar Jónsson) and Ásta (Margret Vilhjalmsdottir), stricken by the discovery that their son Örn (Aron Brink Sigurjónsson) has a different blood type than his father -- which connotes that Ásta conceived the child with another man. Reeling from betrayal, Pétur then slips into a drunken mania and proceeds to destroy everything he can call his own -- disowning his wife and son, moving into a new apartment, slipping into a meaningless affair. He unleashes his fury on anyone -- and anything -- standing in his way, until the anger completely consumes him, threatens to drive him mad, and pits him in a grueling contest of wills against Ásta that shatters Örn. Hilmar Jónsson and Laufey Elíasdóttir co-star.