Le baiser de l'ours

Being a fan of Rebecka Liljeberg I picked up a copy of this film on DVD with great expectations. I was not disappointed. The story is that of the relationship between Lola (Liljeberg) and Misha the bear. Lola is a performer with a shabby traveling circus. Her mother and step father also work in the circus but life is far from perfect. Lola is given a baby bear and forms the kind of loving bond she is unable to have with the emotionally damaged circus people that surround her. In response to her love Misha reveals to her that he is a shape shifter and can transform from a bear to a man (Sergei Bodrov Jr). A beautiful love story unfolds with a unique and unexpected twist at the end. Rebecka Liljeberg is wonderful embracing the sad, lonely Lola trapped in the cheap and tawdry world of circus life. The film is directed admirably by Sergei Bodrov Sr. The soundtrack is haunting and sad but gets a little too heavy handed at times in my opinion. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in something a little different from the standard Hollywood fair.

Premise: a girl from traveling circus adopts and grows up a bear. This bear starts to transform to a human and back. Girl falls in love with him.

Impression: bad plot, cardboard characters, unbelievable relationships, artificial turns - nearly everything witnesses against this film. But to make justice, one should mention excellent music and very good photography - thanks to composer and to cameraman, I guess.

...and still, I really enjoyed it. The story was great as were the visuals. But the script was poorly written... I had the impression that I was watching a student film from the Prague Film School... understandable, because it was written in English by a non-native speaker, and had the same effect... very minimalist dialogue... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it didn't ring true to me. And the acting was some of the worst I have ever witnessed. The main character, the girl, was extremely wooden in her delivery. It felt like she was sight-reading the script. The guy who played the bear was much better.. maybe because, as a bear, he was naturally more reserved. Only some of the very peripheral characters (like the circus ringmaster) were believable. Yet, in spite of all this, the movie really held my attention, and I really liked it. The ending was satisfactory. If I were a 12 or 13 year old girl, I think this would be one of my all time favorite movies, so it really is worth a see.

Okay, the premise that the gorgeous Lola's grown up pet bear keeps transforming himself into a teenage lad (fully dressed) & then back again is off-the-wall daft. But IMHO, Rebecka Liljeberg as Lola keeps it together, with a fantastic performance (sultry teenager, coping bravely with the challenges of teenagerhood – plus the ultimate in dysfunctional (step)folks – and to top it, being besotted with a blinkin' bear). Early on I thought there might perhaps be some deep significance/ profound message going to emerge ... but when this possibility disappeared and (roughly 2/3 of the way through) and the movie crossed the line into total gobsmacking incredulity territory - I stayed captivated ... watching Ms Liljeberg. This lass has the talents and looks deserving of the Big Time (would have been great in the Scarlatt J 'Lost in Translation' role). Gosh, do all gals with exotic Scandinavian names have brilliant acting-talents & looks?

'Romantic' is the word most vividly associating with this movie - in all of the senses of this word, much of the Middle Ages' understanding of romance as a dream and a tragedy. An earlier experience with the Russian temper (especially if one is acquainted with Russian literature) can make the theme better understandable. I wanted to see this movie already a very long time ago (though succeeded only yesterday) mainly because of the "bear" Sergey Bodrov jr. (particularly remembering the film "Brother") and the overall plot description reminding of a fairy tale. In both of these I found what I expected. Mr.Bodrov is rather convincing embodying the bear's strength, wildness, well - bear-ness, and the general atmosphere of the film is so undeterminably magic. Also Ms.Liljeberg is expressive and positively incomprehensible as the lonely circus girl fighting all problems of life. The fantastic shapeshifting from bear into human and vice versa I regarded not only as a fairy tale feature, but also as something a bit symbolic. There is a lot of the human dilemma to be met, like loving the girl and still wanting to be a bear i.e. wanting to change for the sake of someone and to be who you actually are. But that, I guess, is a question of willingness to see. In general, the film doesn't pretend to a lot of symbolism or great revelations, though. But it is worth seeing at least because of the mild calm dreamy atmosphere, which is not met in movies often these days.