There are two basic problems with "Dag och Natt". The film should have been a short film. Some parts stand out while others trail and bring the overall impression down. Sometimes you find yourself baffled by how well played and intense this movie is, and sometimes you find yourself baffled by some weak acting (the acting, in general, is impressive), some weak writing or the appearance of some old, worn out clichés (but perhaps this is the same as weak writing). This is one of two problems.
The other problem is that the film leaves you quite empty. It's a pitch black tale of a divorced career man who's on the end of his line and has decided to kill himself (this is no spoiler since it's explained to you in the first lines of the film from a narrator). It's all set in his car (which is a quite cool thing about the flick) as he drives around to say farewell to the people in his life. As in Moodyssons "Lilja 4-ever" it's a movie completely without a glimpse of hope; ebony until its last frame. And that, quite frankly, is its problem. This is also a reason why the film should have been a short one. After some two hours (give or take) the film leaves you with nothing but some thoughts about why a man would kill himself and what a crappy place the world can be and why we must love each other and ladidadida... Not very fresh. Stale, I would say. It doesn't leave anything untold, doesn't leave you with questions and doesn't display more then one face (not literally, of course) the whole way through. I expect more from a feature film (that has any kind of ambition).
All said and done the film is a definite "go see" for anyone wanting to keep up to date on Swedish popular cinema, and if you happen to be a Swede then it's definitely worth your 80 kr. It's a good film, don't worry about it.
There is a third problem with the film, but this one is a local problem. The trailer that's been running on Swedish TV and in movie theaters is quite misleading. It's cut and scored in a way that makes you believe that the movie is some sort of comedy and flashes the names of the cast (which are pretty much all Swedish movie stars) in your face. Knowing the true nature of the film I wonder if this is some attempt at irony or whatever, but it only hits me as a cheap trick to get people to the box office. Furthermore it attracts an audience to the theater who isn't ready to see the film, which is unfortunate. I myself sat in a (scarce) crowd where a lot of (very young) people voiced their feelings of being mislead to see a film which they simply didn't want to see, and that's just not all right.
/Daniel Lindroth
