Sprängaren

Well, what can I say. This movie is a slow, typical swedish crime story on the silver screen. As such, it's nothing spectacular. But since I'm a journalist, I can appreciate the many scenes taking place at the newspaper. They are good, if only a little too tame. If people only knew how cynical journalists really are, they'd be chocked. Sometimes reality's more extreme than fiction...

Colin Nutley is known for regarding Swedes in an English way, although he makes us recognize ourselves very well. He has always been fair to us. In "Sprängaren" he is telling a story about life on a Swedish evening paper. The plot, which begins with the bombing of the new imaginary Stockholm Olympic Stadium, isn't really interesting however. The values in this movie are to be find in the relations between the reporters.

Helena Bergström is here making her best part for quite long. According to Swedish journalists, this is how life is at an editorial staff of this kind. The problem is the thriller element. Mr. Nutley makes the final solution a little too easy and one asks oneself, was it really necessary to make a thriller at all, when you are making a movie about this kind of newspaper people?

This movie is based on a great book, one of the best thrillers I've ever read. As many times before the movie can't live up to the expectations, but still it's entertaining. In the book it was much easier to understand how the main character experienced some of the real rough situations in the story. Some apparently considered too rough to be filmed. This one you have to read first, then go see the movie.

I watched this Swedish movie Sprangaren with subtitles based on an IMDb recommendation on another film (Irene Huss - Nottrand). The comments here had discouraged me but I went ahead with this. This is not a nail-biting thriller and may not be as good as the "girl with ..." series. But it is definitely watchable. The lead actress has done a good job as have most of her colleagues. There is a little thrill, a little investigation, a little analysis, a little emotion (especially with the colleagues) and a good bit of curiosity. And I did not find the movie slow. It is just that most of the events were inside the newspaper office and not out on the streets like American movies. There isn't much of screaming, either. But after watching a movie like this, I can appreciate why screaming and street action may not be required for every thriller. Overall, it's a good job done.

It sucks! Not the film, that's quite good. What sucks is that there hardly exist a single Norwegian who dares to make good films - like the Swedes do. WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO LEARN???! When?` Sprängaren is a good movie, well worth an eight, but it could have been a little more fast-paced, like to book, and then it would have deserved maybe even a niner...