Silly Little Country

Fucking Amal - Show Me Love

The reference point is this IMDB entry. How could we change the title like this to bring it into English? - the Swedish title IS in English. And better, as noted below.

As I watched this film, utterly captivated, I wanted to write a long blog entry about it. Unfortunately Roger Ebert had already written almost all I wanted to say here. (This often happens to me.)

Some watchers may find the happy ending dubious, but Ebert points at why I do not consider it so:

It's more about vegetating in a town that makes the girls feel trapped. And it sees that the fault is not in the town but in the girls: Maybe their boredom is a pose

Elin, for all her wish to fit in and be normal, spends much of the film recognizing that it is Agnes who will escape this town and actually get to Stockholm, as they fail to do at one point in the film, and permanently with a real life there, not just for a momentary escape. Agnes has resources that will get her there. Elin, struggling for normality, has only the friends that help her feel normal, and they fail her progressively. Especially once she slightly opens her mind (and heart) to Agnes.

I feel grateful that the combinations of math, science, aquariums, music, chess, and perhaps being a nerd to just the right degree (as well as having a basic enjoyment of an oppositional stance) meant that the torment in high school was pretty minimal - I could feel for these girls, but thankfully never had to feel just like them.

This film was in a close battle for a while for my new #1 - certainly into my top 10 though.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 3:23 PM