A movie that draws power from the crash between merry Christmas songs and old starters that grabs attention. Could it have been?
Yes, it's just standing in line behind the myriad of genre footwear, Swedish and foreign.
But okay, even a worn theme can surprise, if managed with subtlety and timing.
Unfortunately, this is not the case here.
It is Peter Jöback himself who is responsible for the idea for the film which is about the world famous singer Simon (Jöback) who comes home to the village somewhere in northern Sweden where it all began. The large wooden villa where the alcoholic father, now dead, terrorized his wife and two sons is decorated for a traditional Christmas party.
Everyone is in the place: fragile old mother (Suzanne Reuter), brother Anders (Johannes Kuhnke), real halves, cousins and siblings. It is a large family with many Christmas rituals, which is to make sure everything is just as it usually is.
But no, not this time.
It was five years since the director Ella Lemhagen last came up with a Swedish film, the new recording of The Boy with the Gold Pants (and after that a foreign production), and if you, as a signatory, usually like her often colorful and small-screwed story, her name on the movie poster gave rise to a certain optimism.
And certainly, when it comes to the drops, the crumbs and the fun details, Lemhagen is recognized. Fun things like Loa Falkman's embarrassingly entertaining Uncle Christmas General, and his voracious wife (Anneli Martini makes a brighter version of mother-in-law in Solsidan) or as the film's main source of warm humor: Simon's two little nieces who steal every scene they participate in.
But when it comes to the darker tones, the film becomes blunt as a Bavarian umpa-umpa orchestra. Old battles, insufficiently buried trauma and devastating sibling rivalry make the facades shatter. And then that deep wound that Simon has carried on since childhood, which is linked to the church choir. It is a poignant premise that could put some tag in the heart, but the execution quickly causes irritation.
In any case, the one who dislikes being led by a movie.
This Me too drama in So as in heaven-land is so predictable that it hurts. If you thought that Kay Pollak's mentioned driving movie was unclear, this is pure notebook. Brilliant plantings and clearly meaningful looks. The next step was to have flashing arrows showing the way to the finish.
Never has a family talked so much about not talking enough. Sentence is repeated at regular intervals, often in exactly the same wording, sometimes with slight variation. We already take before the first reply to the theme falls.
But despite all this talking, the family understands nothing of the basic trauma. They are musical the whole bunch but emotionally deaf, which is a good contrast, but worse is that the filmmakers seem to assume that this also applies to the audience.
Negative bonus: We find ourselves as often before in a Swedish countryside where everyone, even those who grew up in the countryside, speak Stockholm. Yes, except he then, who tries to tone down his Gothenburg.