Simon And The Oaks (2011) @ Simon Och Ekarna

Swedish post-coital chess? Oughtta try it sometime.

At a glance:

Simon And The Oaks (2011) or Simon Och Ekarna in its native Swedish, is a lavish adaptation from Marianne Fredriksson's 1985 book of the same name. Running 122 minutes long, it's a WWII comin-of-age drama told chiefly through an awkward boy, Simon (Jonatan S. Wächter) who talks to trees and dreams of music, findin no support nor understandin from his pragmatic home. He goes to a fancy city school and befriends a Jewish boy called Isak (Karl Martin Eriksson). The two essentially swap fathers due to common interests and by the end credits, you'd appreciate why the Swedes thought this was a pretty powerful picture and it swept everythin at their domestic awards.

Bad news on the doorstep:

The young Simon (Jonatan S. Wächter)

This film is part of this year's lineup at GSC's European Union Film Festival so I thought I'd look it up. It wasn't their Best Foreign Language Pic submission to the Oscars and you could see why. Filmleaf's Chris Knipp summarises: "despite international success, Simon lacks anything to make it special. It feels like a rehash of many other pictures with just a touch of Swedishness pasted in; it quite lacks the magic of Jan Troell's historical sagas." Indeed I felt more moved with Troell's Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments (2008) in the same event three years back. Blu-ray.com's Brian Orndoft notes how it's "surprising but also frustrating, especially when larger ideas on musical liberation and environmental connection are lost to the melodrama, resulting in an intermittently powerful, yet vaguely detailed film." Variety's Ronnie Schreib praises the retention of the narrative complexity of the Swedish bestseller on which it's based but decries how the WWII saga "never creates an emotional or intellectual throughline of its own". I'll sum it all up for you - it was a very uneven movie that was largely borin. 

Perennial wonderment:

I have yet to see the 2010 Swede submission that made the last eight for Best Foreign Language Pic - Simple Simon a.k.a. I Rymden Finns Inga Känslor (meanin "in space there are no feelings"). About time I did.

Reminds me of:

Katharina Schuttler obliges with a full frontal.

The older Simon is portrayed by Bill Skarsgård, son of Stellan, and he reminds me of Louis Garrel in The Dreamers (2003). That sex scene recalls the one in Angela's Ashes (1999) - would you have sex with a horny young girl stricken with the consumption?

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Problematic momentum and not enough emotional hooks to get us to root for the older Simon, who comes across rather unlikeable and difficult to comprehend. What can I say - go read the book, perhaps? An accomplished movie, nonetheless.★★1/2
Bonus material:
Here we have some important sex scenes you won't be watchin if you're gonna catch this at the upcomin European Union Film Festival in Malaysia. Simon (Bill Skarsgård) is seduced by concentration camp survivor Iza (Katharina Schuttler) but her damaged, psycho-sexual  requires a spot of S&M from him and he simply can't provide the rough lovin. Unless things have changed, it will go down to the manual cardboard censorship again.

Simon (Bill Skarsgård) is seduced by concentration camp survivor Iza (Katharina Schuttler)
but cannot provide for her damaged psycho-sexual needs.

Director Lisa Ohlin with cast Bill Skarsgård and Helen Sjöholm.

(L-R) Cast & crew: Jan Josef Liefers, Katharina Schuettler, Lisa Ohlin, Bill Skarsgard.
Photocall during a set visit to promote the new movie 3 May 2010.

Wake Wood (2011)

"Help! I don't wanna be another child star with an anonymous adult career!"

At a glance:
This is a Swedish-Irish project filmed in Övreby and Donegal that will whet the appetite of any Pet Sematary (1989) fan who wanted The New Daughter (2009) done in the vein of The Wicker Man (1973) with a bit of the bovine horror from Isolation (2005). Yes, it's definitely worth a look, if only because it is Hammer Films' first feature release in over 30 years - bringin life to the old English studio that gave us movies like The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958). The classical bio-resurrection horror formula is revisited by producer Brendan McCarthy who wrote a rather uneven script and screenplay together with director David Keating - though this is amply made up by the excellent production values, includin the quiet star appeal of decidedly Irish leads Eva Birthistle (Ae Fond Kiss, 2004) and Aidan Gillen (Blitz, 2001) not to mention a very familiar face in Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter films).

The ubiquitous Timothy Spall

Bad news on the doorstep:
The little girl (Ella Connoly) is somewhat miscast but her yellow raincoat is perhaps a nod to the red one worn by the little girl in the 1973 classic Don't Look Now so we'll just overlook that.
Perennial wonderment:
Why aren't there more supernatural horror like these? The best thing about Wake Wood is the texture and quaintness of the set, especially when you have a look at the grisly traditional FX employed to depict the supernatural elements of nature. Wake Wood does well in bein totally devoid of the sudden-loud-noise horror that we've come to expect these days and is one of the more memorable returns to chillin ritualistic paganism since Lord Summerisle last  held a fire torch in 1973's The Wicker Man.
Watch out for:
Muddy scenes of human resurrection. Reminds me of lemang.

"Shit. I knew we should've just adopted."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Wake Wood (2011) obliges with a strong finish that comes with a twist for post-movie conversation fodder and perhaps we can all agree with the director who wrote in the production notes that "everything that happens is their fault but as an audience we go along with all the mistakes they make because we know we would do the exact same thing in their place".★★★1/2

Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments (2008) @ Maria Larssons Eviga Ögonblick

At a glance:
Sweden's proud submission for Best Foreign Language Pic at this year's Academy Awards, Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments really do seem to last forever, clockin a 131-minute runtime filled with socialist sentiments, early photography techniques and a whole lot of 1900s alcoholism, infidelity and domestic violence. Not to be confused as the biopic of a current Swedish politician, the oft-reviewed period drama is a semi-rewardin foray into the true story of a laundry woman livin in those times who won a camera in a lottery and pursued the art of masterin the curious contraption as a hobby, despite her surroundin poverty and matrimonial problems.
Bad news on the doorstep:
Perhaps due to it being an adaptation from research and interviews conducted between the director's wife and the daughter of the 19th century woman, a story as real as Maria Larsson's will give rise to uneven attention bein paid to a whole volume of events, especially without an expert touch. Director Jan Troell's product is a subtle drama without much darkness or humour, resultin in an insightful but ultimately mediocre experience in terms of full-epic impact.
Reminds me of:
Angela's Ashes (1999) with Robert Carlyle.
Watch out for:

Director Jan Troell

The titular lead played by Maria Heiskanen is half the strength of the film, a character which other reviewers have described as bein afforded an Imelda Staunton-like portrayal with equal ease in carryin angst and tenderness. However a much more visually-arrestin character is her drunkard wife-beater of a husband Sigfried, played by a faultless Mikael Persbrandt (pic). You know a good actor when you fail to hate his character despite him doin some truly horrendous things. The other prominent part is photo shop enthusiast Sebastian Pedersen (Jesper Christensen), who plays a kind man fuellin Maria's love for the lens and ends up fallin for her.
Most memorable line:
This is what I mean by the lack of epic strength. Can't think of one.
Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?
Perhaps this is an eye-opener to study his other works such as The Emigrants, Here's Your Life, Hamsun and The New Land. For now this is a two and a half star effort.
Trailer for the curious:

Bonus material:

Maria Heiskanen says... smile!!!