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The Oath

Play trailer Poster for The Oath 2016 1h 50m Crime Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 16 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
The daughter of a well-respected doctor begins dating a dangerous criminal.

Critics Reviews

View All (16) Critics Reviews
Matthew Lickona San Diego Reader Everyone gets sympathy; no one gets excused. Rated: 3/5 Sep 8, 2017 Full Review Adam Graham Detroit News Kormakur sets an icy tone from the beginning and sticks to it as his tense morality tale plays out. Rated: B Sep 8, 2017 Full Review Ben Sachs Chicago Reader As in many other Scandinavian thrillers, the style is cold and austere, the content ugly and misanthropic. Sep 7, 2017 Full Review Michael McNeely That Shelf The speed of the film is exhilarating. Feb 21, 2019 Full Review Glenn Heath Jr. San Diego CityBeat The film's ultimately conventional take on rationalized violence lacks teeth, relegating it to an already overflowing bin of cold-nosed morality tales that are indistinguishable from each other. Aug 21, 2018 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...a better-than-average thriller that benefits from its strong performances and Kormkur's solid direction. Rated: 3/4 Jun 2, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (4) audience reviews
isla s This is quite a bleak thriller, basically about a father trying to protect his daughter from her drug dealing boyfriend, despite his claims to have cleaned his act up. Its quite bloody/violent at times, as would be expected. There are one or two plot twists. Its a decent watch, if you dont mind a pretty bleak watch and are ok with the subtitles (if you don't speak Icelandic, obviously). Also, if your curious, the oath mentioned in the film title refers to the Hippocratic Oath taken by medical staff, such as the father who has a day job as a surgeon. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Finnur (Baltasar Kormákur) is surgeon who is worried about his eldest daughter, Anna (Hera Hilmar). Anna has been involved with drugs and Finnur is made aware that Anna's boyfriend Óttar is a drug dealer. Thinking he is an bad influence on Anna, Finnur tries to break up the relationship. But neither Anna nor Óttar has any intention in doing so and Óttar becomes threatening due to Finnur's incursions on their private life. After Finnur's workmate Halldór shows him a victim of a shooting, Finnur starts to plan for Óttar's disappearance... "The Oath" (Eiðurinn) is a slow paced Icelandic thriller with hardly a unique storyline and with the well known Baltasar Kormákur (whom we mostly know as a director) in the lead. The film (actually the highest grossing film of 2016 on Iceland) has great cinematography with beautiful Iceland as the backdrop, but nothing really stands out in this film in my opinion. It´s uneven and sometimes not really logic in the plot. There´s a potential for a full on gripping drama, but "The Oath" fails really to reach that height. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Excellent emotions. fine acting. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member A simple premise with subtle characterization leaves no room for useless additions and subplots. "The Oath" acts entirely on its own, balancing fast paced emotion with a subtle rational hand, all while shedding the light on a drug dealing problem becoming more prevalent in the 300,000 person island. As the characters juggle with morality, the audience is left captivated and following to the very end, wondering who truly is the villain at the heart of this film. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Oath

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis The daughter of a well-respected doctor begins dating a dangerous criminal.
Director
Baltasar Kormákur
Producer
Baltasar Kormákur, Magnús Viðar Sigurðsson
Screenwriter
Baltasar Kormákur, Ólafur Egilsson
Production Co
RVK Studios
Genre
Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
Icelandic
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 15, 2017
Runtime
1h 50m