Man tänker sitt (2009)

Farväl Falkenberg was a splendid film that captured a sense of sadness and nostalgia. Man tänker sitt, Henrik Hellström & Fredrik Wenzel's first feature film (they were part of the Falkenberg production & writing team), isn't as superb, but it sure is an original movie that gives you a lot to think about. It builds up a dreamy world of ugliness (a glowing Lidl sign, fences, well-pruned hedges) and as a contrast with that, raw nature.

Man tänker sitt has plenty of things in common with Falkenberg; gorgeous, almost sacral, music by Erik Enochsson, to mention one thing. But something went astray in the process. Thematically, the films are also very similar: Hellström & Wenzel take a sombre look at the enclosed life of suburbia, trying to formulate what lies beyond that kind of bourgeois setting. In both films, nature provides an escape (the English translation of the title: Burrowing). Open fields, lakes, forests conjure up another world, unbothered by neighbourly gazes and concerns. The civilization criticism of Man tänker sitt could even, with its explicit Thoreauan baggage, be said to have a romantic outlook on nature. And there my problems with this film begin. The characters' alienation from suburbia is, it seems to me, painted with too broad streaks. The dialogue & scene composition sometimes stray into the stereotypical. (I started to reflect on how authors & directors seem to have developed a special branch of the Swedish language to conjure up shallow small-talk.) On the level of ideas, the film is rather vague. What is it trying to say?

Still, there are lots of great scenes that work really well. In one scene, the camera seems to make a 360 degree movement around the boring surroundings consisting of family houses and fences - the effect is dazzling. The young boy's wanderings at the football field is another. That particular role is well acted (some other characters become a little too sketchy). The young actor has a peculiar presence. It is that actor's voice that provides the voice-over, quotes from Thoreau (I suppose) along with small observing comments about the community. The camera-work is mostly stunning and so is the music.

As another reviewer points out, Gummo and George Washington are apt points of reference. Tarkovsky, of course, is another.