Sex, hopp & kärlek

Lisa Olin is a talented Swedish director and her movies are about everyday-people with very dramatic bud still everyday-conflicts.

This is about the TV-man leading a totally vulgar program, there he tries to get singles into relationships. It's supposed to be real life, but is of course as far from that as possible. But there is a real life, even for him and Krister Henriksson here gives another great performance.

Everybody here are unhappy for different reasons and mostly because of the merciless truths they are confronted with. It would have been better to remain in the lies, but in the end they seem to find that also truth can be handled and there is also some sex, love and hope. For them anyway.

Films about the successful big city professional returning to their small provincial hometown and finding their roots and the people they left behind is a fixture of latter day Swedish cinema. The theme was already explored in films like Smala Sussie (2003), Masjävlar (2004) and Så som i himmelen (2004). So when Sex hopp och kärlek (2005) came along, it had to bring something extra to outdo or at least live up to its predecessors, but unfortunately it did not.

Sex hopp och kärlek is more about desperation than about the sex, hope and love from the title. In that sense it is reminiscent of Bergman's dark epistles, but not nearly as well done. It really has little to recommend it, apart from an attempt at gritty realism covering modern issues like euthanasia, self-mutilation and post operative fear of death. It is not a bad film, but it is too mediocre to warrant any endorsement.