Gene, an aging schoolteacher (Gabriel Byrne) grappling with the recent death of photojournalist wife Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert) attempts to reconcile with his two very different sons (Jesse Eisenberg and Devin Druid), in the first English-language feature by acclaimed Norwegian director Joachim Trier (Reprise andOslo, August 31), who reconfirms his well-earned reputation as one of the finest young European filmmakers to emerge in the last decade. Working with his co-writer and long-time collaborator Eskil Vogt, in Louder Than Bombs Trier expertly shuttles between different timeframes and character perspectives as he investigates the dynamics of a troubled family. Both of Trier's previous features also concern themselves with intellectuals who question their existence. Here he displays a truly novelistic sense of character and detail as he probes the faultlines of this clan, and he also mines sly comedy from the generational gap between Gene and his sons. The remarkable, stellar ensemble is rounded out by Amy Ryan as Gene's fellow schoolteacher and David Strathairn as Isabelle's editor. Powerful, memorable, and psychologically acute, Louder Than Bombs is both a lament for what has been lost and an affirmation of what remains.