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| Source: Imdb |
This drama about a grieving widower coming to terms with his past was complex and deeply moving. Told through breathtaking cinematography, a gorgeous, atmospheric score, speaking silences and terrific actors, the many layers of this story slowly condensed and blended to form a mesmerising picture. The story draws you in, even though a plot does not become readily apparent. I loved the foreshadowing, the metaphors and red thread elements guiding the audience through the story, as viewed from a teenager’s perspective who never quite grew up to get over the events of his 15th summer.
Many things remained unsaid, but it was not necessary to voice them. The
actors communicated everything loud and clear. Particularly Jon Ranes, who
plays Stellan Skarsgård’s younger self, delivered a commendable performance
with gravitas and sensitivity, impressing with his physical prowess when riding
a horse bare-back and bridle-less, to his fearlessness when it comes to
vulnerability and emotion. Skarsgård himself is, of course, a veteran of the
craft and rightly regarded as one of the great. He made sure to fill in any
blanks left in the dialogue with his body language and his eyes, ending up
saying just as much without words as he did with them. You could clearly see
what was going on in his character’s head – and, most importantly, the director and editor gave him the necessary
time to do that. Tobias Santelmann, who played the main character’s father,
displayed the same gift for wordless communication with the audience. At the
beginning, we see him through his 15-year-old son’s eyes, but as he grows up, his
perspective begins shifting as he learns more of his father’s past, and we get
to see more of the emotional turmoil his father is suffering. This is expertly
delivered by Santelmann, with a raw and mature performance that promises great
things for the rest of his career. Certainly an actor to watch. Everyone else
was fantastic, too. Overall, the casting was just flawless.
The cinematography that captured the events was awe-inspiring, mixing
shots of nature and wildlife with still-life-like interiors, composing every
frame like an artwork, perfectly lit and colour-balanced. They chose to support
their story with an exquisite colour palette, dampening the bright, glowing
greens and reds of youth to soft pastel hues as time progresses until they end
up with the whites and greys of age in a Swedish winter. (On a side note, they
do seem to have chosen actors who’s faces are a joy to light, enhancing their
features and supporting their craft this way.)
The score by Kaspar Kaae was minimal, but powerfully evocative. Most of
the film gets by without any music at all, but it supports the atmosphere
beautifully in places.
For most of the film, I was utterly mesmerised and I was loath to pause
it to find better subtitles. (this is the only flaw: my Swedish is not good
enough to follow the dialogue without them and the subs I had got patchy after
half of the film was through, leaving out entire significant conversation. It
was like the author couldn’t be bothered any more.)
So, awesome acting, atmospheric score and breathtaking cinematography. A
truly mesmerising watch. The only flaw was that I felt the film didn’t explain
the historic context well enough. 4/5
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