Livet är en schlager

As a big fan of the Eurovision Song Contest I knew I had to see this movie the moment I saw the trailer. It revolves around Mona, a not very glamorous woman, working with the handicapped David. Mona, played by the multi-talented Helena Bergström, is also a huge fan of the ESC and has named her four daughters after stars from the contest. This film is a great vehicle for Bergström, whom you may know from films such as Änglegård I and II, but both Jonas Karlson as David and Björn Kjellman as Mona's brother Candy Darling, offer strong support and, at moments steel their scenes. Actually Karlson's and Kjellman's only scene together is the film's strongest point. Inevitably there is a lot of music, some a bit cheesy and bad.

This movie has several beautiful aspects, and touches many of the problems we face every day, the importance of keeping your dreams alive in order to survive, and at the end of the day: How important it is not to loose sight of your friends and family in the process!

After having lived in Sweden for half a year, I truly appreciated this look into modern Swedish living. Schlager is to the Swedish what the ocean is to lemmings. They are all drawn to it instinctively.

A full-time nurse with three kids and an unemployed husband gets her lucky break and breaks through as a Swedish superstar.

A lot of laughs and frustration. Good acting, nice photography and above all a compelling story. 9/10.

Mona Bergström is a sweet eurovision-obsessed woman in her 30's. She is married to a lazy husband and have 4 children, all named after her favorite Swedish eurovision popstars. Her brother is a crossdressing guy selftitled "Candy Darling". Mona works on a retirement home for disabled people, where she is responsible for taking care of a young man named David who suffers a movement restricting disease forcing him into a wheelchair. Davids parents has abandoned him as they wanted a normal child. Mona holds a big place in Davids heart, and vica versa. Davids goal is to get his parents to come and visit him, and he wants to show them that he is a great person, despite his handicap. Therefore he works with music on his computer, and his goal is to create a song, send it to "The Cardigans", a famous Swedish band and have them play the song and credit him, hoping his parents would spot it and want to visit him. One day when Mona is seeing David, she listens to one of Davids songs. Surprised by the great melody, she *steals* a copy and brings it home, where she writes lyrics for it. Being satisfied with the result, she records her voice along with the song and send it to "Melodi Festivalen", the Swedish preliminaries for Eurovision Song Contest, hoping she could archieve the fame she had dreamed about many times. Weeks later she gets a call from Swedish television, saying her song has been approved and she will be one of the 10 performers in the Swedish eurovision preliminaries...

I'm not spoiling anymore here.... view this movie - you have my best recommendation to do so. :)

This is a feelgood comedy about ordinary people living extraordinary lives. It centres around a woman who is living her lifelong ambition and how it affects her and those who are close to her. Some parts can be seen as sickly sweet, but there are several dark undertones about how certain "different" people are perceived and treated in society today. Definitely worth watching.

This (Swedish) movie is the worst thing I have ever seen from Danish Susanne Bier's hand. This is too bad. Susanne Bier has made so fine movies as "Freud flyttar hemifrån..." (1991), "Brev til Jonas" (1992), "Det bli'r i familien" (1994), "Sekten" (1997) and the beautiful "Den Eneste Ene" (1999). After this one she made "Brødre" (2004) and the Oscar-nominated "Efter brylluppet" (2006). This script stinks. Not her fault altogether, as the script is by Jonas Gardell. But the fine, fine actors make some of the story believable. Most of all Helena Bergström as Mona, and Jonas Karlsson as David, and that may be a credit to the director, too.