Simply put, this film is made for very devoted Håkan Hellström fans who get a kick from recognizing references to Hellström's lyrics. As a story, though, it is borderline painful to sit through. About two thirds into the film I gave up trying to make sense of the characters' ever-changing motivations and just wanted the film to end. This is the first time I've wanted to leave the cinema in the middle of a film.
Håkan Hellström has made many nice songs about everyday events, and the writers apparently thought it would be a good idea to take characters and events mentioned here and there in his lyrics, and try to glue them together into a feature-length film. This does not make for a coherent story, though. The characters, portrayed by otherwise competent actors, are cartoonishly one-dimensional. Their motivations change on a whim whenever something needs to happen or be said in order to make another reference to a Hellström lyric.
Because that is the heart of this film; referencing lines and song titles from Hellström's body of work, all the time, and as literally as possible. Some scenes will make absolutely no sense to viewers that are not familiar with the particular lyric that's being referenced. Like the silent scene when Johnny decides out of nowhere to paint a black cloud on a wall and then sit down to sulk underneath it - thus referencing the (not mentioned in the film!) lyric "Johnny I like you / You have a black cloud over you".
The plot is almost as whimsical as the characters, and can't decide what genre the film is supposed to be. Most of the time it's like a biopic drama, some romance, then suddenly it's a farce and then an action thriller, before it returns to biopic drama again.
Much of the charm in Hellström's songs lie in the unpolished sincerity and energy of his singing voice, and this is somewhat lost when the actors re-enact some songs for a few musical numbers, although they're clearly doing their best. This film has a good amount of pretty photography to go with the music, but as a mere "casual" Hellström fan who was hoping for an actual plot, I felt the writing insulted my intelligence.
