Never too late to watch a good film
Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 9:58 pm
Cheers, and first of all, please forgive my bad english.
It's a very strange thing, this movie came to my country in 2000 and I was interested in it, but I ended up forgetting about going to watch it.
Finally I downloaded it (and I still want to buy the DVD if I can find the right version...) and watched... and I discovered this film is very good and... it's 10 years old already (on october, 23 it seems).
I found FÅ very touching and an awesome piece of art, else I would not be here writing my review, obviously. I'm a middle aged man and the teenage movies are not my stuff (sometimes I find them fun, but sure I'm not very interested) and I have to say the first part of FÅ didnt work so well for me.
Probably many will disagree (if there's someone who still wants to read a review, obviously ) but in my opinion FÅ has a difficult start.
The birthday party the girl doesnt want, the mother who prepare roast beef forgetting about Agnes being vegan (or vegetarian?), the showdown where Agnes says to Victoria all the nasty truths (were they truths?), and then no one comes to the party... well, everything sounds cliché to me.
After watching half of the film I stopped. It didn't appeal to me, even if some of the Elin outbursts were funny. The day after, I was about to delete the file but I said to myself, you just don't want to face some memories (not all of them beautiful) and flashbacks this story is giving you. So I decided to brace for the second half of the film: and the story that really counts started to kick-in from there.
After the kiss-in-the-car scene the problem starts for Elin (yes, I think she has the most interesting role). Problem is: to be part of the "gang" and have a boyfriend, bear the terrible boredom and so on, or getting to know herself and to understand her true desires. The viewer sure can identify with that, irrespective of gender, age, being gay or not.
Agnes has to bear in silence the disappointment of seeing her hopes cruelly crushed, and wait, and to give new trust on Elin over and over again, until the happy end. Good actress, less interesting role.
Film themes' importance has nothing to do with the girls being lesbian after all, but oh well, they are soooo cute... being honest I think I could rather not have watched this film had it be about a two male gay boys' story, and if really FÅ appeals more to the males than to females as I read somewhere, probably it's because of the good looking girls.
Quick note number one: I find Agnes' father to be a good fellow, he understands he can do so little for the daughter but he's intelligent in the way he tries anyway. Number two: Johan is not the brightest guy in the world but he is true in his love: no happy end for him, and I feel this is very sad. But had the director made a side-story for him, where he finds another girl after Elin leaves him, the film would be cheesy and less true.
This said, FÅ is a honest, direct film about coming of age, knowing yourself, learning to make your own decisions and standing up to them.
In other words, a damn good film.
But I guess it's ten years you already know it ...
It's a very strange thing, this movie came to my country in 2000 and I was interested in it, but I ended up forgetting about going to watch it.
Finally I downloaded it (and I still want to buy the DVD if I can find the right version...) and watched... and I discovered this film is very good and... it's 10 years old already (on october, 23 it seems).
I found FÅ very touching and an awesome piece of art, else I would not be here writing my review, obviously. I'm a middle aged man and the teenage movies are not my stuff (sometimes I find them fun, but sure I'm not very interested) and I have to say the first part of FÅ didnt work so well for me.
Probably many will disagree (if there's someone who still wants to read a review, obviously ) but in my opinion FÅ has a difficult start.
The birthday party the girl doesnt want, the mother who prepare roast beef forgetting about Agnes being vegan (or vegetarian?), the showdown where Agnes says to Victoria all the nasty truths (were they truths?), and then no one comes to the party... well, everything sounds cliché to me.
After watching half of the film I stopped. It didn't appeal to me, even if some of the Elin outbursts were funny. The day after, I was about to delete the file but I said to myself, you just don't want to face some memories (not all of them beautiful) and flashbacks this story is giving you. So I decided to brace for the second half of the film: and the story that really counts started to kick-in from there.
After the kiss-in-the-car scene the problem starts for Elin (yes, I think she has the most interesting role). Problem is: to be part of the "gang" and have a boyfriend, bear the terrible boredom and so on, or getting to know herself and to understand her true desires. The viewer sure can identify with that, irrespective of gender, age, being gay or not.
Agnes has to bear in silence the disappointment of seeing her hopes cruelly crushed, and wait, and to give new trust on Elin over and over again, until the happy end. Good actress, less interesting role.
Film themes' importance has nothing to do with the girls being lesbian after all, but oh well, they are soooo cute... being honest I think I could rather not have watched this film had it be about a two male gay boys' story, and if really FÅ appeals more to the males than to females as I read somewhere, probably it's because of the good looking girls.
Quick note number one: I find Agnes' father to be a good fellow, he understands he can do so little for the daughter but he's intelligent in the way he tries anyway. Number two: Johan is not the brightest guy in the world but he is true in his love: no happy end for him, and I feel this is very sad. But had the director made a side-story for him, where he finds another girl after Elin leaves him, the film would be cheesy and less true.
This said, FÅ is a honest, direct film about coming of age, knowing yourself, learning to make your own decisions and standing up to them.
In other words, a damn good film.
But I guess it's ten years you already know it ...