User reviews

I do respect Måns and Hannes for their acting skills, they were some of my favorites during my childhood. However I've seen this movie too many times, "this movie" being a typical swedish film about the (exaggerated) misery of ordinary life although "Klassfesten" was much worse in this fashion. You get this embarrassed feeling like you're seeing something you shouldn't. If you like this feeling, perhaps this one's for you.

A young couple, Sophia (Josefin Nilsson) and Freddie (Jacob Ericsson) has just got their first baby, but this little thing makes their lives way to complicated and difficult for them to handle. They both have jobs, Sophia is an actress and Freddie a balloon-flier, which makes it tough to be home with the baby and such. They also have to deal with Sophia´s family, which includes a depressed dad, a close to senile mother, and two eccentric sisters. The family life is nothing what Sophia and Freddie expected.

This is Hannes Holm´s and Måns Herngren´s first big movie after the incredibly successful "Adam & Eva", which took the Swedish theaters by storm. Some people expected this to be a new "Adam & Eva", but since it´s not they got pretty disappointed. When "Adam & Eva" was a rather simple comedy, about marriage and stuff, this is more serious. It tells a story about family-life, and how to deal with your "old" family and "new" family at the same time. I suppose I´m rather alone with this opinion, but I have to say that "Det blir aldrig som man tänkt sig" was much better than "Adam & Eva".

The script is much tighter and contains funnier jokes than the "predecessor". It has lots of memorable one-liners and the acting is fantastic! The lovely Josefin Nilsson and funny Jacob Ericsson are totally believable as the young couple, and the rest of Sophia´s family is great as well. Especially Gösta Ekman and Bibi Andersson as her parents. There are lots of familiar faces in smaller roles, like Peter Dalle and Peter Wahlbeck. But my personal favorite is definitely Lennart Jähkel, as a sleazy director. He has some great moments here, even if nothing can budge his killer-performance he did in "Jägarna".

This is a beautiful movie in every sort of way. It has sad moments, but happy and funny ones as well. The ending would probably have been treated in a silly way if this was a Hollywood-production, but here it is just perfect. And I have to admit that I had tears in my eyes during the final scene. A great movie, which ranks as one of the best Swedish films I´ve ever seen. It made me really happy, so I will definitely be watching this if I´m feeling down some day.

* * * * ½