DVD Snabba cash

Had big doubts when I came. Had less doubts when I left and they were of another kind. But, big surprise, Swedish film industry has produced a gangster thriller which is on international level, although not the highest.

The business school student here is too fascinated by suburban immigrant mobster life. And he wants the money involved, so he gets into the racket. He's a solitaire in that kind of life, which of course (what did you expect?) is told in a cliché way, but the people you meet aren't just monsters, running the evil machine or being part of it. They are somewhat believable and so is the gloomy mood in this environment.

What happens is rather foreseeable, but it's anyway a quite intelligent movie about crime and criminals. It could have been much much worse.

The first time I saw this film I had just finished the book. Simply loved the book so I was really looking forward to the movie adaptation. With successful adaptations of great books such as The girl with the dragon tattoo in fresh memory. Sadly I found myself pretty disappointed. The problem according to me was how they had handled the material. Compared to quite a lot of films based on books Snabba cash really deviates from the source material. I found this very unexpected. I understand that you can't bring the entire book to the big screen but there were several changes that I just couldn't grip why were made. Some of the alterations didn't make sense at all to me, some felt clearly worsening. So far that a couple of the character felt vastly different to their counterparts in the book. Rather than based on the book I would call this film inspired by it. Maybe they decided to take the parts they liked in the book and make something out of it that was there own.

Some time later I saw the film again and I decided to try be more objective, not keep irritating myself over the changes. Take it for what it is and not what it should be. I found it a very well made film. The thing they have really captured is the atmosphere and tone, which really feel like what the book also did so great. The music is well chosen and helps greatly to create the right feel. The acting is good, there are some parts mainly in the beginning which feel somewhat stiff and not entirely satisfactory but it's just minor complaints. Joel Kinnaman is pretty much as I imagined JW, however the actor which makes the best performance is Dragomir Mrsic even if he doesn't feel quite like the character in the book. I was very surprised in a positive way by the action. Impressively done with great suspense. Still the script is not without flaws. The pace is fast so one might not catch how everything works. There are some plot points from the book that are mentioned briefly but then not explored further. I think they should have simply left these parts out since they come to feel somewhat like plot holes. But still it's just small flaws. What I like about script is the dialogue, Las Vegas baby, brilliantly written.

Despite all my complaints Snabba Cash is in the end a very well made and greatly entertaining film. Sure it could definitively be better at some parts but flaws aside it is overall satisfying. As a film on it's own Snabba Cash is good 7/10 as an adaptation of the book not quite satisfactory.