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DVD Maria Wern: Inte ens det förflutna
 Run time: 90 min Rating: 5.3 Genres: Thriller Director: Erik Leijonborg Writers: Erik Ahrnbom, Anna Jansson Stars: Eva Röse, Frida Hallgren, Rebecka Hemse |
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| Plot Keywords: remote island | |
| Details: Country: Sweden Release Date: 20 July 2012 (Sweden) |
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DVD Maria Wern: Inte ens det förflutna
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/refers to all series/
For decades, the leading character in Swedish crime series was a strong man – Wallander and Beck are most known – but (apparently) in line with gender equality and growing number of policewomen, the time was ripe to introduce a respective female character, first Irene Huss, later Maria Wern. The result is not bad, not focusing on women issues, but providing different touch and angle into police work and communication. Similar to Huss, the books behind Wern were written by a woman, thus women are often both victims and offenders (no spoiler here, not always, you still have to guess… :)) The run and tensions are mostly high, there are intertwined actions present, with roots in the past, and guessing "who committed crime(s)" is mostly vexed. However, 90 minutes per series is a bit too long, for weekly showings 1 hour should do. On the other hand, they include nice overviews of surrounding and landscape – the island of Gotland in the film in question – which is picturesque and often at odds with severe crimes and felonies. I am sure, Gotland is not a criminal place in reality…
As for the cast, it is less catchy than in other Swedish series, there is no distinguishable supporting character such as Frank Wagner, Gunvald Larsson or Jonny Blom… On the other hand, the role of team playing is higher and the leading character does not spend most of the time on screen. Eva Röse is pleasantly attractive and witty, Allan Svensson, Ulf Friberg and Peter Perski provide suitable performances as well… However, it seems that Sweden has labour shortage among thriller actors as many of them appear in other series, creating confusion and make you ponder if you have seen this person is this series or somewhere else. Well, the outcome is not bad, but if a known actor appears in the beginning it is easy to guess that his/her character would re-appear and be involved in something important. Luckily, most of those actors have had opposite roles in different series, among the good and the bad.
But still, if you like a relatively calm thrill requiring constant look on the screen, the series is for you (preferably successively). And – as mentioned in the beginning – it is no women-only crime.
Swedish policewoman Maria Wern suddenly finds herself the victim of a prank caller turned creepy stalker and narrowly escapes an attempt on her life before deciding a little time away would do her good. She decides to accept an invitation to a get-together on a faraway island where some of her old female friends celebrate that they graduated upper secondary 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, this does not shake off the stalker, now turned killer, who cleverly disconnects the phone lines, cripples the boat to the mainland and hides all the cellphones before starting to pick off the girls one by one.
The movie is riddled with clichés and the girls quickly assume the stereotypical roles of similar movies, the quiet one, the confrontational one, the frightened one and so on. Unfortunately the main character remains rather gray and devoid of personality.
Despite Maria Wern's clever thinking that the girls should stay in Paris to find out who the murderer is, most of the movie's dialogue consists of the girls shouting each other's name looking for each other, since they persistently break this simple rule. Even Maria Wern herself thoughtlessly leaves one of her friends in the lurch so she can be easily finished off by the killer.
Overall, I'm surprised that this movie made it to the cinema, since it has all the characteristics of a Made-for-TV crime thriller. The bad dialogue, the formulaic script and so on. Strangely, the movie's cast is quite good, starring some of the best Swedish female actors of their generation, like Vanna Rosenberg, Helena af Sandeberg, Fanny Risberg (from the Arn movies), and 2-time Guldbagge nominee Frida Hallgren. It's a shame that this very talented group of actors struggle with the very poor quality of the source material, this movie could have been so much better.