Blondie

Year: 2012
Country: SWEDEN
Run Time: 88 minutes

Brilliant Swedish director Jesper Ganslandt has an unfailing eye for character and an uncanny ability to work in wildly varying styles. After making one raw film about rural slackers and one disturbing suspense thriller, he now presents BLONDIE, an acerbically funny take on the melodramatic Scandinavian family drama. Sigrid’s three daughters are convening in her elegant country home for her 70th birthday. Following a brief cheerful reunion, their happy-family veneer quickly starts to peel away. Elin is a fashion model, bitter at being sent to work in Milan at 15. Unhappy Katarina is a mom and a doctor who’s having incredible sex with a colleague. Youngest sister Lova dreads the drama she knows is just waiting to happen. Following a panic attack and a fire at her carefully planned party, Sigrid is stricken and becomes comatose – which, oddly enough, allows her daughters to talk to her for the first time. All four actresses deliver lovely performances, but the hilarious family theatrics alone are worth the price of admission. (In Swedish with subtitles) – B.B.

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