The Trouble with Sweden
Movie Review of 'Daybreak'
Volume 17 | Issue 37 | February 11 - 17,
2005DAYBREAKDirected
by Björn RungeIn Swedish with English
subtitlesNewmarket
FilmsFilm
ForumMarie
Richardson (l) as Sofie and Pernilla August as Agnes portray two Swedish women
at odds with one another, in Björn
Runge’s
“Daybreak.”The
Problem with
SwedenThree personal
crises in a society questioning its national
identityBy SETH J.
BOOKEYTolstoy once informed us that
happy families are all alike, and unhappy ones are each unhappy in their own
way. The new Swedish film
“Daybreak,” directed by Björn Runge, gives us a fresh spin on
this idea as we follow three unhappy storylines that unfold over the same
24-hour period. Continuing the tradition of trawling the darker end of
humanity’s pool, in Ingmar Bergman’s vein, Runge mixes the age-old
dramas of infidelity, jealousy and paranoia with some contemporary Swedish
themes that include xenophobia, social breakdown and the general fear that the
nation’s social welfare-oriented society is heading straight down the
toilet.The film focuses on three lives
as they are plunged into crisis. Anita (Ann Petrén) is an older woman whom
we first meet complaning of chest pains in a hospital, and who later has a noisy
encounter with a shrink who wants her to rehash her anger at her husband’s
sudden departure three years ago for another woman, the physical therapist who
helped him recover from an auto accident. We also meet Richard (Jacob Eklund), a
remarkable surgeon who is cheating on his wife, who in turn suspects
something—she makes her son take the calls from the mystery woman asking
for Richard. The third player in “Daybreak” is Anders (Magnus
Krepper), a workaholic bricklayer, whom we meet as he lashes out at a customer
who doesn’t have the money to pay him. He destroys all the work he had
completed before storming off and going home to the wife and daughter he never
gets to see.“Daybreak”
features powerful performances from all of its players. The angriest performance
probably belongs to Petrén, whose Anita is at high pitch throughout nearly
the entire movie. In a parking garage, she sells her prescription sedatives in
exchange for a taser, then heads over to her old house, where ex-husband Olof
lives with new wife Petra, and lets loose a torrent of rage on them both. When
she’s not screaming, she’s stone-faced with an evil
eye.Eklund plays Richard with a
maddening detachment that underscores his utter denial of his wrongdoing. The
film opens with him literally holding a human heart in his hands as he performs
a transplant. His approach to everything is just as clinical; he refuses to see
the hearts and souls of his family or of his mistress Sofie (Marie Richardson),
which are also in his hands. When he abruptly announces he’s sold the
house (his family’s tenth move in 15 years), his wife Agnes (Pernilla
Augst, a Bergman favorite) is astounded, just as she is when he answers the
question “Do you love me?” with the reply, “Sometimes.”
Richard encounters the unspooling of everyone’s emotions when dinner
guests arrive, with surprises of their own, and he offers to
cook.Anders has the strangest encounter,
though, with clients who ask him to brick up their windows and front door; he
blithely indulges them until they request that he seal them inside. Armed with
stockpiles of canned goods that will last for years, and a rifle too, they plan
to fend off “invaders”––of their home and their country.
Anders, the subject of their abuse when he asks to be paid off the books, learns
the couple’s apparent xenophobia in fact masks agoraphobia on an emotional
level.No one is killed in
“Daybreak,” but there are certainly some close calls, and the
emotional violence is tremendous. Each of the three tales illustrates how
ambition eventually collapses under the weight of betrayal and selfishness.
Richard, Anita, and Anders all once had high expectations, but now feel betrayed
by life.Yet, Runge offers hope as
well––some of his characters prove to have a capacity for learning.
Still, the intense emotions in “Daytime,” while very real, are also
unrelenting. If you hated it when Mom and Dad fought, “Daybreak” is
ten times worse. But, for those who like being a fly on the wall while people
are at their very, very worst, “Daybreak” will not
disappoint.
Posted: Fri - February 11, 2005 at 11:37 PM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:03 PM
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