A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy (2009)
A beautiful waterfront house, a Swedish flag fluttering in the wind. A sailboat tied to the wooden deck below. This is the setting of the friends' annual Midsummer celebrations. The friends are gathered at Emil's family house and the herring lunch, sauna, games and compulsory skinny dipping are as always prepared. Expectations are set - Micke worries about his highly pregnant wife and the fastest way to the nearest hospital. Eva is looking for some distraction from her recent split with Patrick and Sam. Emil's college buddy from the States arrives with his own expectations of Swedish sin. Wannabe singer-songwriter Anders hasn't told his wannabe pregnant girlfriend Maria about his low sperm count and hopes to solve the problem over the weekend. To top it off Emil's surprise seems to lift the party to unprecedented heights. If everything had gone according to plan that is.
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Slow pace in the most part of the movie.
Simply A Masterpiece
Memorable, crazy movie
Fantastic!
and nothing more. and the fundamental error is the desire to present a too large story with the necessary tools. result - all is confuse, strange and out of the basic rules for a portrait of a group. the nudity scene or the presence of Luke Perry do not save the story. because it is a not inspired mixture of drama and fake comedy. because the script is chaotic and the possibilities of acting in reasonable manner restricted. because it is a story with so large artistic possibilities who are , by Ian McCrudden, only sketches. and not good ones. a good point - maybe, the music. but it is not easy to say than it is enough. only virtue - the search of viewer imagination for a better story and a more inspired script.
Comedy dramas is a popular genre in Sweden mainly because they usually generate a lot of money and therefore will be a hit at box office. However, few directors in Sweden seem to understand that the genre is difficult, and that is hard to reach and maintain a good balance between comedy and drama.This film being one of the proofs how hard it is the maintain a good balance.The story is about a group friends(and one American) that decides to celebrate midsummer together in the Swedish archipelago. Everyones is planning to have good time but soon conflicts arise, truths are being told, lies exposed....Setting a comedy drama during a holiday, and in this case one of the most biggest holidays in Sweden, is great choice because then you will have small group people to explore and create drama from.Just like a wedding, Christmas, holiday trip etc. But problem here is that some of the script is uneven, flawed and doesn't give us anything new. There is some slapstick comedy that feels misplaced and wrong.The dialogue is not as good as should been either. But the actors do their best, for example Olle Sarri Swedish comedian, who does his best in trying to be funny.But that is not enough, when the script is so bland and so boring at times. With 4 screenwriters one would have expected more.However, this film was more entertaining then the very overrated Sommaren med Göran - En midsommarnattskomedi/ A Midsummer of Love(2009), that critics hailed as funny drama comedy.I only wished that the makers of this film had seen Ogifta par - En film som skiljer sig (1997), Adam & Eva (1997) or why not Bergmans old classic Sommarnattens leende/Smiles of a Summer Night (1955).Had they seen these films they may have been finding a better balance between the comedy and drama bits in this film. Future viewers have been warned, watch with caution.
I have to disagree with "An Abomination". Just because the movie has depth doesn't make it less of a comedy. There are quite a few truly funny scenes well suited for a comedy. The movie also has another, more serious, side to it which I find really appealing. It is not hard to find at least one character you recognize yourself in, for good or worse... :) I am usually more of an action-movie-kind-of-a-girl but this comedy really hit the mark for me. It makes you feel happy, sad, embarrassed (sometimes you recognize sides of yourself you don't want to acknowledge), and then happy again one minute later. All in all, I really like it, and as a bonus it has my kind of ending. I would definitely recommend it, above all to Swedes living abroad who miss their friends and the Swedish summer. If they watch this movie they would feel like home for 90 minutes. Now finally I have to agree with "An Abomination", the music is great!
I just watched this movie with a bunch of my Swedish friends and we had a blast! Being a non-Swede I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as they did, but I totally did. The subtitles didn't bother me, which was a surprise since I tend not to watch foreign movies.I felt the cast were tight and very easy going. The dialogue simple and got to the point without the expected Swedish delay if you know what I mean. It reminded me of The Big Chill... Sweden looked beautiful and exotic in my eyes. The director has made a funny and sweet movie, nice to see Swedes in a different light than what Bergman shared with us. Thank you, McCrudden, we needed that!