THE UNTHINKABLE (Den blomstertid nu kommer)
Magnolia Pictures
Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten
Director: Crazy Pictures
Writer: Crazy Pictures, Christoffer Nordenrot
Cast: Christoffer Nordenrot, Lisa Henni, Jesper Barkselius, Pia Halvorsen, Magnus Sundberg, Krister Kern
Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 4/25/21
Opens: May 7, 2021
You need not be a Buddhist or a purveyor of the Book of Job to know that life is full of suffering. But there are degrees. There’s the discomfort of having a root canal when the endodontist had run out of lidocaine, and the agony of accidentally shooting yourself in the knee while on a hunting trip. So don’t feel too sorry for yourself if you’ve had to watch the clock while slogging through 129 minutes of a Swedish film that is a combination video-game (with no winners that we can ascertain) and drama of family dysfunction, combined with the agony felt by a young man in the Swedish sticks when his girlfriend moves to Stockholm. Some critics will likely praise that Crazy Pictures (that’s a guy named Victor Danell) wrote and directs for the histrionics involving the firing of assault weapons, a helicopter crash, several explosions that destroy more houses than a mid-West tornado, and car crashes with injured drivers acting out additional road rage. Even the physical action, though, is a welcome break from the tedious goings-on of a guy whose father pilots his own plane yet accuses his wife of buying their son a guitar that the family “can’t afford.” Middle-aged Björn (Jesper Barkselius), after smashing a guitar that his wife Anna (Lisa Henni) bought for their dorky son Alex (Christoffer Nordenrot), gives the impression that director Mr. Pictures (can I call you Crazy?) watched a steady diet of American action pics.
Christoffer Norfdenrot in Alex’s role allegedly co-wrote this dud (is that before or after his brain was scrambled in a car crash?) that Crazy opens on Alex, oppressed by his dad with nobody nearby in the sticks to bring the young lad to safety, or ultimately to show empathy when he thinks he has lost Anna’s affection. Dad’s fury grows once his wife walks out on him and his son bolts to Stockholm to try his luck with a band. When it’s bombs away, warfare declared by an unknown villain able even to poison the rain, and Björn gets his chance to be a hero manning the country’s only surviving electricity distribution center, Anna, supposedly dead, reappears in a secret army base.
Since the company had to work with just two million dollars (16,770,600.00 Swedish krona), perhaps they should have scrapped the vid-game in favor of family drama, even saving some of the allotted krona by cutting a half hour from its length. After all, Crazy Pictures’ has a résumé of shorts and only one other narrative feature and should have taken advantage of the talent therein.
129 minutes. © 2021 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – D
Acting – C
Technical – B
Overall – C