Dag och natt

It is a well-known fact that the better one lives, the higher one's living standards, the more suicides there are. Such that in extremely poor countries, suicide does not exist; instead these impoverished people die in civil wars and wide-spread famine. So it is with no surprise that this film in question is Swedish, dealing as it does in such a delicate theme as suicide.

Thomas sets out to visit and say good-bye to those around him - his mother, his wife, her lover, his young son, his sister, his lover........only to find his problems - never very clearly defined - are no worse than theirs.

Cleverly filmed, more than 80% of the film is made while he is driving his car, day and night, around Stockholm and its hinterland, the main characteristic of the film is the splendid characteriological interpretations of the actors and the impact of this rather dramatical denouncement: the message is clear. Where in the supposedly civilised and advanced world we crowd our lives with such benefits as a 'beautiful car', high spending-power, advanced technology, and so on, we are losing something which is far more important: the ability to communicate with those around us, the capacity to feel mutual sentiments, empathy with those persons who participate in our daily lives. All this has gone, ironically, with the arrival of so many different electronic means of contacting people all over the place. The world has gone mad: we cannot communicate with our loved ones, the people dearest to us. We communicate with a phone, a mobile (cellular), TV, radio, satellites, electronic mail and all the advantages of Internet, and other ingenious inventions, but face to face or side by side, those deepest human feelings like saying 'I love you', seem to have become outdated.

This is the case with Thomas; evidently he has lost contact with his mother, his wife, his sister, and even his lover is obviously disconnected from the ravages that Thomas is suffering. The end is horrendously predictable - and orchestrated - with terrifying thunder to aid and abett the outcome, such that there is no surprise. However, it is in the way the film is enacted and carried out that it scores - and scares. Those long hours mostly filmed at the steering-wheel express Thomas' dilemma, however incomprehensible it may be, which forces him into deciding whether to be or not to be.

There are two basic problems with "Dag och Natt". The film should have been a short film. Some parts stand out while others trail and bring the overall impression down. Sometimes you find yourself baffled by how well played and intense this movie is, and sometimes you find yourself baffled by some weak acting (the acting, in general, is impressive), some weak writing or the appearance of some old, worn out clichés (but perhaps this is the same as weak writing). This is one of two problems.

The other problem is that the film leaves you quite empty. It's a pitch black tale of a divorced career man who's on the end of his line and has decided to kill himself (this is no spoiler since it's explained to you in the first lines of the film from a narrator). It's all set in his car (which is a quite cool thing about the flick) as he drives around to say farewell to the people in his life. As in Moodyssons "Lilja 4-ever" it's a movie completely without a glimpse of hope; ebony until its last frame. And that, quite frankly, is its problem. This is also a reason why the film should have been a short one. After some two hours (give or take) the film leaves you with nothing but some thoughts about why a man would kill himself and what a crappy place the world can be and why we must love each other and ladidadida... Not very fresh. Stale, I would say. It doesn't leave anything untold, doesn't leave you with questions and doesn't display more then one face (not literally, of course) the whole way through. I expect more from a feature film (that has any kind of ambition).

All said and done the film is a definite "go see" for anyone wanting to keep up to date on Swedish popular cinema, and if you happen to be a Swede then it's definitely worth your 80 kr. It's a good film, don't worry about it.

There is a third problem with the film, but this one is a local problem. The trailer that's been running on Swedish TV and in movie theaters is quite misleading. It's cut and scored in a way that makes you believe that the movie is some sort of comedy and flashes the names of the cast (which are pretty much all Swedish movie stars) in your face. Knowing the true nature of the film I wonder if this is some attempt at irony or whatever, but it only hits me as a cheap trick to get people to the box office. Furthermore it attracts an audience to the theater who isn't ready to see the film, which is unfortunate. I myself sat in a (scarce) crowd where a lot of (very young) people voiced their feelings of being mislead to see a film which they simply didn't want to see, and that's just not all right.

/Daniel Lindroth

Day and Night has been shown on Australian TV four or five times and I watch it again every time and appreciate it more each time. I am not surprised that other viewers either love it or hate it. This is the mark of a good movie! Also, I am not surprised that it was originally promoted as a dark comedy. In my last viewing I often found myself laughing at some scenes but, of course, the subject is unrelentingly grim.

What I like most is the screenplay technique of using the claustrophobic car for the whole movie. It would work equally well as a stage play, yet it is still cinematic. The use of the car conveys the sense of a journey (like life), the ultimate road movie if you like! The final scene is a cinematic gem (the rain as tears, the empty front passenger seat).

Above all I found myself caring for the characters, all of them. This is the mark of good writing. The top-notch casting and performances contribute to this empathic response but it is the dialogue that is so engaging. In particular, Thomas' wife, his son, his sister, his lover and even his mother (who remembered him at the end) all love him. His other travelling companions care about him, even the old man (who confides his innermost thoughts), Jacob (who respected him) and the "whore" (who will not do it for money!).

More importantly Thomas loves all his family because, like a child, he wants to hurt them by his goodbyes. The scene where Emil rejects him, outside the car, and then Thomas cries when he returns to the car, is a heart-starter. Thomas is clearly in emotional pain. Yet he can't think "outside the box". This is why the scene with Emil's dead bird is so sad because Thomas is a canary in a cage by choice. Thomas says he will hurt his family less when he is dead. Oi!

My response to this movie is that I want to reach out and stop the car...... That, my friends, is good movie making! If I was a depression-counsellor I would show this to my clients! I think anyone who was depressed would understand Thomas and see he was in a cage of his own making. Call me irresponsible if you like.

Anyway, I am looking for the DVD (Region 4) and can't find it yet.

This is a different road movie. The main character has decided to kill himself in the evening and spends his last day driving around to say good-bye to everybody, including his mistress, his son, the son's soccer coach, his mother and so on. Nobody knows that this good-bye is definite.

This is about a person crying for help and nobody hears it. The reason for that is that almost everyone the main character meets, has problem like his or even much worse. Nobody has any solution. It is about people trying to reach out, but not being even close to touch anyone.

This is in most cases very well played, especially by Michael Nyquist and Pernilla August. The episodes do however not have the same quality entirely. Some of the episodes could even have been left out. The script really needs good actors, because if you just read it, you would find it rather uncomplicated, although it deals with complicated people.

I think this film is one of the best i ever seen. When you have seen it for the first time you have a lot of things to think about because the film really mention important things and facts about life. The film doesn't become boring when it is made in a car and that the main character is driving through the whole film. And that's because the plot is interesting and that the actors are very good. I like this film for two reasons: That the actors are really good and that the plot is very important and interesting. Mikael Persbrandt does one of his very best appearances in this film and he is really outstanding. It's very much worth seeing because if him. So i can really recommend you to go and see this film if you haven't done it yet. You won't become disappointed. So do your a favor. See it today!