Sex, hopp & kärlek

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.