This biopic about the teen years of famous Swedish
author Astrid Lindgren was beautifully done and very moving. The translation of
the title from "Young Astrid" to "Becoming Astrid" is a bit misleading,
though, suggesting a sort of origin story for the great writer, when it's really
just about her youth. The story followed
the troubled fate of Astrid as a teen mom with a baby out of wedlock in 1920ies
Sweden – an experience that does not readily translate to her later career as
an author of children’s books. In fact, I felt that the characters could have
had any names. The story still would have worked. What I found interesting all the same was how progressive Sweden seems to have been even back then.
Astrid was beautifully portrait by Alba August, though her age never quite seemed to match the character. The rest of the cast was good as well, but the project suffered from weak and uneven directing as the ensemble didn’t really seem to fit together harmoniously. Particularly with Astrid’s mom I had the feeling that the actress was approaching her role from an angle that didn’t really tie in with the rest of the picture, and the scenes with the toddler actors were just not well-directed at all. The erratic editing didn’t help there, either.
The cinematography was beautifully, though, with a consistent colour palette and nicely framed shots. Composer Nicklas Schmidt provided a gorgeous score on top of everything.
Despite its flaws, the project came together as a touching and somewhat memorable film. 3/5
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