The Emigrants

I've both read the books and seen the original adaption of the books by Jan Troell. Now that adaptation has it all; great acting, evocative settings and fantastic cinematography. Amongst many things. This new adaptation lacks it all. Both Skarsgård and Carlehed (male and female lead) are theatrical in their acting, thus making their performance forced and unnatural. The pace in the narrative and shift of scenes is uneven. Crucial parts of the story telling that connects the plot and makes every piece fit together are missing.

The great side story about the brother of Karl-Oskar and his horrible trials in the new country has been cut out in its entirety. The characters developed by Poppe and the actors aren't credible and the acting is lacking honesty and vitality.

I started out with an open mind and with my hopes up. But ended up being disillusioned and embarrassed over how this great chance of doing something new and enriching was spoiled. Money and time wasted. Don't watch it, you are not missing out... Take the chance and enjoy the original adaption from 1971. It is still, so many years later a mind blowing masterpiece that makes you really appreciate how far we as Swedish people have come. And what a struggle our ancestors had to endure to bring us the high level of comfort and living we take for granted today.

This version of the classic story centers on the wife, rather than the husband, and it works very well. You get a real feel for the scariness and loneliness of being the first homesteader in an area. You also get a strong feel for the contradictions of a tight-knit faith community: its enforced conformity versus the sense of belonging.

I was surprised by the many negative reviews of this movie on IMDB. My only criticism was that the actor playing the husband was completely uncharismatic.

Good movie, recommended.

Added nothing to the already existing adaptations, and lacked the essence of Mobergs original masterpiece. Went into the movie theaters with an open and curious mindset, left it unsatisfied.

The story i way to complicated to cover in just over two hours. The story feels rushed and there is no time to build up the characters. Poppe has lade a lot of changes from the books for the worse. The actors for Karl-Oskar and kristina doesn't have any chemistry, it doesn't feel like the love story of the books at all.

Don't waste your time, read the books or watch the old films in stead.

I sincerely believe this is the worst movie I ever have seen.

The original story is of love, determination, history and the hardships of life. I was hoping to find at least one of those characteristics in this movie, unfortunately that was not the case.

We're told the story off two childish and selfish individuals who constantly are nagging with each other over small irrelevant issues. The nagging takes focus over the story that moves forward somewhere in the background.

The lack of character building makes it so you simply don't care if the characters would get harmed or die.

The wierd conversations and the unreasonable reactions together with the bad script and acting makes you completely unconnected from the story throughout the movie.

The best way to describe this film is as a bad high school play with too much money.