A 130-minute barrage of unrelieved bathos and sentimentality, this Swedish import doesn’t so much insult your intelligence as complacently assume that you never had any in the first place, wouldn’t know what to do with it if you did have it, and in general favor entertainment that bypasses the brain entirely and addresses itself directly to the tear ducts. The plot is of the type commonly described in laudatory reviews as “well-worn,” which seems to be a euphemism for “shop-worn,” “cliché,” or “stupefyingly unoriginal.” Here it is (spoilers follow): Daniel, a big-shot conductor in emotional difficulties and poor health, returns to the quaint rural village of his childhood, takes over and revives the local church choir, heals himself and everyone else in sight with his life-affirming yet charmingly diffident zaniness, finds love, finds his inner child, and finally, at the moment of his and his choir’s greatest triumph, croaks. A great director and screenwriter might have been able to conjure some life out of even this forbiddingly stale and schmaltzy program, but Kay Pollack isn’t up to it. Instead, in a kind of perverse tour de force of misbegotten inventiveness, he celebrates, embraces, wallows in the schmaltz, throws it at you until it’s dripping off you like oobleck, and somehow keeps finding more reserves of it tucked away in odd little corners of the film. Indeed, there’s something horrifyingly impressive about the way this movie gets relentlessly stupider and more bathetic from the first frame to the last: it almost bespeaks a kind of strange talent, albeit of the Ed Wood variety; and while watching it I almost suspected a cynical provocation of some kind, as in the Kingsley Amis story about the poet who, at the end of a long and successful career, publishes a volume of intentional gibberish in order to expose the critical establishment as a passel of clueless poseurs. (Speaking of whom: “As It Is In Heaven” was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars in 2005, after being strewn with similar honors in Sweden, where it was reportedly seen by some TWO MILLION viewers. We’re used to this kind of idiocy from the Academy, but what’s going on in the country of Strindberg and Bergman? Has someone been putting something in the köttbullar?)

A standard feature of movies like this (and books like this, if it comes to that–cf. Ayn Rand) is that characters are presented not as human beings but as representatives of some principle or other that the filmmaker deems important and relevant. AIIIH is no exception. The parade of didactic marionettes includes:

– Daniel’s love interest, a ditzy twenty-year-old blonde, who represents the Life Force;

– the humorless, sexually repressed, hypocritical preacher, who represents The Church, which as we all know is a sinister combine bent on stamping out the sex drive and repressing all manifestations of joy and spontaneity, especially in modern Scandinavia;

– the wife-beater whom everybody at first inexplicably tolerates, and then finally locks up and forgives–who represents Violence and What to Do About It;

– the retarded kid whom Daniel insists on letting into the choir, chiefly so that he can become the film’s symbol of the Virtues of Inclusiveness and the Deep Human Wisdom of Special People. (Incidentally, it’s about time somebody realized that sentimentalizing retarded people, in movie after movie, as symbols of purity/goodness/wisdom-beyond-the-ken-of-those-cursed-with-normal-intelligence, or whatever, is just as disrespectful and exploitative as making cruel fun of them; it just SEEMS nicer. CAN’T we have a movie that depicts a retarded person as a human being? The only one I can recall seeing is “Best Boy,” a documentary about the life of a retarded man that came out about 25 years ago. Apart from that they’ve been reduced to targets of witless ridicule, as in “There’s Something About Mary,” or turned into plaster saints as here.)

So, to sum up: save your money and your time, which would be better spent sleeping or watching reruns of “The O.C.” Run, don’t walk, from your local art theater if this is the main attraction. And don’t forget the moral of the story, rather comforting to me as an expatriate American living in a Europe that preens itself on its superior wisdom and sophistication vis-à-vis the USA: kitsch is global.

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Each character in this movie shows their humanity and their spirituality in their capacity to forgive and forget. This is the a great example of doing shadow work (seeing in others what you deny, repress or disown in yourself.) The honesty revealed led to the love that was there between them all. I recommend it to everyone without reservation.

Film Review SAGF-1

(This review was originally published in the Swedish American Geneologist, December, 2008)

Så som i Himmelen (As It Is in Heaven), 2004, directed by Kay Pollak, DVD non-USA format, Swedish with English subtitles, Amazon.com $25.99 plus shipping.

Almost unknown in the US, this beautiful and heartwarming film from Sweden has been described by critics as one of the best Swedish films made in recent years and has been nominated for several awards in Europe. It was recently shown at the American Swedish Historical Museum in Philadelphia after our annual Semlor gathering. I quickly rushed to find a copy for myself to share with others. Regrettably, I will have to try and convert it to US format, or find a European format DVD player, to show it other than at the Museum. So unlike the popular fare being churned out by Hollywood, the film deserves much wider acclaim in the US among all moviegoers, not just Swedish Americans.

Taking place in a small village, Ljusåker, in the far northern province of Norrland, the story is about a small boy (Daniel Dareus) raised by a single mother, who has a talent for the violin but is bullied by local boys. He grows up to become a world-famous musician and conductor, driven by his talent and desire for perfection, to ill health and exhaustion. He returns alone to his little village to recover and rest, buying the now vacant old village schoolhouse to live in. The local people do not remember him as a child but know of his reputation as a conductor. Members of the small village church choir ask him to help them with their music, and he reluctantly agrees. His methods are unorthodox but the choir members come to love him. Others, including the Pastor, question his motives and methods.

The story unfolds to reveal how he affects all those in the village not only in their music but also to grow in their personal lives. All Daniel (played by Michael Nyqvist) ever wanted to do in life was to help people find their own voice, and he is immensely successful in doing so. The Choir, the Church, and the village are all transformed as a result of his presence. It is the rare film that is so moving that it can give one a lump in the throat almost from beginning to end.

Along the way, the Pastor has an epiphany, a battered wife gains confidence as a star soloist, a developmentally disabled boy is discovered to have a great bass voice, and many others face up to their talents and to the issues in their lives. And they create music to stir the heart and evoke God’s grace in fraternity and mutual love. Especially moving is the song that Daniel writes for Gabriela (Gabriela’s song), in which she gains confidence over her fears to sing in a Village concert. (Gabriela is played by Helen Sjöholm, who was the voice of Kristina in the Opera, Kristina fran Duvemåla). Other fine Swedish singers including Frida Hallgren, Andre Sjöberg, Ingela Olsson, and Lennart Jähkel, who perform as members of the choir. You will also hear other familiar songs beautifully sung, including “Amazing Grace” sung in English, and “Beautiful Saviour”, sung wonderfully in Swedish.

Try and find a way to see this memorable film. If you do not know Swedish, the subtitles will let you enjoy the film just as well. You will also see splendid photography of the village and the landscape in Norrland and a glimpse of village life in Sweden in modern times. As is common in Swedish films there are a few minor nude scenes, but not lascivious or offensive and certainly acceptable for teenagers and up. The Swedish habit of always portraying the clergy as flawed and hypocritical is also present in this film, but the overriding story of the power of love and grace in people’s lives more than makes up for this Pastor’s human failing.

Dennis L. Johnson

February 2009