Set in Norway and Scotland, Aberdeen is a road movie that is as concerned with the geography of the heart as that of a topographical map. Kaisa (Lena Headey) is an ambitious lawyer who has just celebrated her recent promotion by having dominant sex with a man whose name she has no interest in learning. When her estranged mother, Helen (Charlotte Rampling), whom she hasn't been in contact with for a decade, calls her up to tell her that she is dying of cancer, Kaisa is faced with her mother's request to track down her divorced husband, Tomas (Stellan Skarsgard). A raging drunk, Tomas has been frequenting the pubs of Norway for a number of years, and Kaisa, after some initial hesitation, sets out for Oslo to find him. When she is finally reunited with Tomas, his drunkenness prevents them from being allowed on the flight back to Aberdeen, where her mother is hospitalized. Kaisa and Tomas embark on an overland journey that takes them across Norway and on a ferry to England, with Tomas drinking constantly and Kaisa discovering something that may be love with a self-effacing truck driver (Ian Hart).
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide