TOGETHER (Tillsammans) ----------------------
When Elisabeth's (Lisa Lindgren) husband Rolf (Michael Nyqvist) hits her for the second time, she bundles up her kids Stefan (Sam Kessel) and Eva (Emma Samuelsson) and moves into her brother Goran's (Gustaf Hammarsten, "The Best Intentions") commune. The wildly divergent commune members and the people Rolf meets now that he's alone will take each member of this family on a unique journey that ultimately brings them all back "Together."
Writer/director Lukas Moodysson ("Show Me Love") creates a warm comedy about a group of people forced to reconsider preconceived notions and how only those willing to take a chance on change are able to make the connections that count in life. While Moodysson doesn't give equal weight to all his characters, making his film's structure unbalanced, his fine cast and true human observations are ultimately what count.
Goran tries to be all things to all people, including his sex-mad girlfriend Lena (Anja Lundqvist), whose proclamation of and action upon their 'open relationship' is slowly driving him mad. Medical student Lasse (Ola Norell) humorously speaks his mind, summing up situations in a no nonsense manner that,
while it may sting, is always on target. His ex-wife Anna (Jessica Liedberg) embraces meditation, hairy armpits and lesbianism, while homosexual Klas (Shanti Roney) yearns for nothing more than to be a housewife for Lasse. Erik, (Olle Sarri) a strident member of the Communist, Marxist, Leninist, Revolutionary League, argues that his welding job keeps him from 'rotting at university.' Signe (Cecilia Frode) and Sigvard (Lars Frode) are hippies who reject meat and materialism.
When Elisabeth and her kids arrive from the bourgeois world (just as Lasse's dropped his pants in protest of Anna's bottomless kitchen attire!), everything shifts. Anna immediately sets her sights on Elisabeth, loosening her up and strengthening her resolve to stay away from Rolf. The kids suffer until Stefan connects with Tet (Axel Zuber), Lasse and Anna's Vietnam War named son, over forbidden Legos, war games and 'playing Pinochet' and Eva begins a tentative romance with Fredrik (Henrik Lundstrom), the equally four-eyed outcast son of next door's disapproving neighbors Margit (Therese Brunnander) and Ragnar (Claes Hartelius). Meanwhile, after a disastrous evening with his kids which ends with him drunk in prison, Rolf quits the booze
and strikes up a friendship with lonely widower Birger (Sten Ljunggren), who urges him to woo back his wife.
Moodysson's nostalgic look back at 1975 Stockholm of 'ugly clothes and bad music' proves that styles may change, but people pretty much stay the same. His gradual reconfiguration of the Tillsammans household is canny and uplifting and his cast are uniformly excellent. Except for its small imbalances (the action shifts away from the household for too long a stretch, Signe and Sigvard exist only to leave in protest), the film's lone drawback is the amateurish cinematography by Ulf Brantas ("Show Me Love"). Brantas zooms and pans like someone with their first videocamera, although editors Michal Leszczylowski and Fredrik Abrahamsen make the most with the footage they have.
"Together" is a life-affirming comedy.
B-
For more Reeling reviews visit www.reelingreviews.com
laura@reelingreviews.com robin@reelingreviews.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 29732 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 253326 X-RT-TitleID: 1109600 X-RT-SourceID: 386 X-RT-AuthorID: 1487
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews