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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Reviews
Best movie of this year hands down!
Thanks for the memories!
Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
one of films saved by the flavor of memories about it. because it propose a large puzzle and so many scenes , a Swedish tradition, few drops of Shakespeare, nudity, marriage crisis and Luke Perry as a kind of guest. and, like each film from the same recipes, the public may explore, at the level of imagination, the possibilities of a better script / acting. it is not exactly a problem of good intentions or artistic errors but the lost of purpose scene by scene. at the end - a summer story about nothing. too dramatic, too full of details, looking the manner to build a coherent story about emotions, expectations and the way to understand the other. all as an improvisation show. but, unfortunately, nothing more.
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!