Review: "The second act" directed by Mårten Klingberg

Eva Söderberg

has lived for others for so long that she has lost herself.

Harald Skoog has lived for the ego for so long that he has lost the ability to see others.

What can they have to learn from each other, believe?

With films such as "Min pappa Marianne" and "Ur spår", director Mårten Klingberg has established himself as the Swedish feel-good king.

Not very complicated characters, not very complicated problems.

But it's a difficult genre to master, at least if you want to create something that goes outside the familiar formula with a main character who lacks something, is faced with a challenge and in the same vein meets a person who makes a difference in the main character's life.

offers no surprises in that respect.

Eva is newly divorced and has just retired.

When she is no longer allowed to help patients at the physiotherapy clinic, life lacks purpose.

That is why she agrees to rehabilitate a stroke patient in his home.

The patient turns out to be the great actor Harald Skoog who doesn't have much left for nonsense like "help" and "care".

The role of everyday Eva could easily have fallen flat, but Olin gives her both sympathy and integrity.

Harald is a familiar figure – bloated, loud and down on everything but acting – but Lassgård gives him a vulnerability.

The chemistry between them is palpable, it's as if they've done nothing but play against each other.

It's also fun to be able to check off the box in the feelgood protocol that says that the environment, in this case Stockholm, should appear beautiful and romantic.

But they have

followed the protocol a bit too closely.

For example, by clumsily boxing in "odd supporting characters": an unbelievably motley bunch who read Trivial Pursuit questions at the neighborhood pub in Kärrtorp.

Far too clear "clues" about the character Eva's fate are planted early on, her relationship with the adult son is artificial.

Yet.

The main criterion for a feel-good film is that you should leave the cinema a little more relaxed than when you entered.

You do that after "Act Two", if only while the end credits roll.