Call Girl

CALL GIRL is one of those slow and sombre Scandinavian productions that's all about the slow burn. It tells the true story of a scandalous call girl ring running in Sweden in the 1970s in which underage girls were procured for leading politicians of the era. Names have been changed but the viewer nonetheless comes away with some idea of the corruption inherent during the era, and of course we all know that most countries have their own skeletons in the closet from that decade.

As a film, CALL GIRL doesn't really excite or involve the viewer too much, although it's certainly very well made and beautifully directed in places. The subject matter is racy but somehow never sleazy; there's a classy slickness to the production that veers on the right side of taste. Saying that, there's still a heck of a lot of nudity from the young women involved, so it's not going to be for all tastes. The acting is of a generally realistic standard, too. My main issue is with the overlong running time; at least half the has elapsed before the story begins for real with the police investigation and some efficient pruning could have turned this into something really remarkable.

A lifeless screenplay makes this ambitious film-project to wreck completely. A true story with all the right ingredients. Olof Palme, the minister of justice Lennart Geijer, Jane Fonda, sex with minors... A major political scandal, swept under the thick Swedish democratic rug. Storytelling turned into a tepid recitation of facts and participants. Very close to the updated version of the book "Bordellhärvan" by Deanne Rauscher, Gösta Elmquist, and Janne Mattsson (Pocketförlaget 2012). As some of you already pointed out, a remarkable tour de force of the "Call Girl" art department. Regarding the locations, most of them are negligent/ignorant choices. A 1976 costume in a Stockholm 2011. The film is stuffed with good distinctive Scandinavian actors. Most of them lost in a sprawling storyline. However, Pernilla August is truly magnificent. A lifeboat in an ocean full of good purposes.

Here's something different. Interesting and intriguing drama told from fact, about some juvie hotties who were used for the sexual pleasure older perverts of high ranking society, some politicians, etc, one finding himself in a corner. Some of them are so repellent as are some of the the older sex workers, you wouldn't touch with a nine foot pole. Callgirl indeed has some strong moments, ones of pure intensity as it builds to a climax of unexpected revolutions, of revolving doors for the characters, where the baddies get away with it, and our two young teens are back in the squalor. Some of the scenes involving girls looking particularly young, 14-15, undressing and being fondled, I'm amazed the filmmaker got away with it. But nonetheless, this is an engrossing film, one of those that become more involving the further it progresses. The film recounts all the hours of phone tapping, bugging the operators and clientele of this racket, with pretty much the same hopeless result as what happened in Traffic. This is one of the best film I've seen in ages, with a story that needs to be told in a film that needs to be seen.

'Call Girl', a film about a sex scandal in Sweden in the 1970's, is labeled as a classic political paranoia thriller. It has indeed some elements of this film genre. There is the righteous police investigator who has to fight against corrupt powers. There are also mysterious exchanges in dark and rainy streets between men in raincoats. There is an undercover photographer who captures suspect encounters from a parked car.

But that is only one part of the story. 'Call Girl' is as much a coming-of-age film as a political thriller. The first half of the film focuses almost entirely on 14-year old Iris, an adventurous girl who ventures into Stockholm's night life and slowly gets involved in a prostitution network servicing high-powered politicians.

The movie is clearly meant as a critique of Sweden's ultra-liberal culture in the seventies. The politicians publicly defend equal rights for women and men, but at the same time use underage girls as disposable sex toys. On the other hand, Iris and her cousin Sonja seem to enjoy the excitement, the glamour and the proceeds of their secret life as call girls. They are not shown as helpless victims but as naive girls who only discover that they have made a mistake when it is too late.

'Call girl' is very good in capturing the mood of the seventies. A great job has been done by Dutch cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, who created the same atmosphere for 'Tinker, Taylor, Soldier Spy'. But the film fails in creating the right amount of suspense. In the first half, the emphasis is too much on Iris's introduction into the call girl network. This part is too slow and too long. We see the same things over and over again: the girls visiting clients in posh hotels, the girls being 'brainwashed' by the network leader, the girls snoring cocaine, the girls parading around in see-through blouses, etcetera. The thriller element is more prominent in the second half of the movie, but even then the film never surprises in a positive way.

The most spoken-about aspect of the film is the Olof Palme link. The son of former Swedish prime minister Olof Palme has started a lawsuit because he thinks the film suggests that Palme had sex with underage girls. In fact, the name Palme is never mentioned. But apparently, in Sweden there has been a police report about Palme's involvement in the network, which has subsequently been covered up until the 1990's. Because of this historical link, the film is probably a big deal for the Swedes. But for the rest of the world, it is nothing special.

1970s and a Swedish scandal which is said took place in reality. High politicians went to prostitutes, some of them certainly much under age.

The problem with this film is whether it's having too little or too much to do with what really happened. Real historical persons appear here, only slightly disguised or not disguised at all really. But that's another kind of discussion. Are there anyway qualities to be found?

Yes, the so called life of the young girls is narrated in a rather touching way and focus should have been on that. Instead it's about corrupt politicians, corrupt police captains and a single policeman trying to fight it. The characters are somewhat square, which hides the story a little.