What a waste of my time!!!

A Brilliant Conflict

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

For quite a while I watched this film with interest and respect, but little by little I began to have some doubts about it and, then, I was turned off completely by the ludicrous ending. SPOILER I then looked back over the film and, bearing in mind the slight doubts I had about certain aspects of it even before the dreadful ending, and enlightened to no small extent by the variety of reviews from users on this website, I concluded that, all in all, it was something of a con and not to be taken too seriously (by con I mean a sort of confidence trick, almost too clever by half, or at any rate too clever for its own good). I didn't like either of the young women, but that is not in itself a reason to criticise the film. I thought the blonde girl was silly, unthinking and irresponsible (often called "free-spirited" – haha!), and I found the dark girl boring, repressed and depressed. If the blonde girl had been a guy she would probably have appeared as the worst sort of Casanova, or at any rate a guy who followed the urgings of his penis without for a moment engaging in any sense of responsibility. The dark girl, Mia, although engaged to be married in a short while to a reasonably normal and decent young man, allowed herself pretty quickly and willingly to be seduced by lesbian Frida and the two of them were soon having a good time in bed and apparently devoted to each other. They called it love – and here I am not making any distinction at all between love between two women and love between a man and woman – but it was nothing more than strong sexual attraction, for which, apparently, Mia was willing to ditch her man and change her life. As other reviewers have pointed out, the two of them never seem to have any sort of conversation together, let alone a meaningful one. Then there was the odd little bit of dialogue between the two of them when Frida suggests that Mia was more adept at making love to a woman than a "virgin" would have been and Mia acknowledged that she had had a previous lesbian relationship. Where was that supposed to take us? It gives the lie to the whole meaning that we had ingested up to that point, namely that Frida seduced an otherwise "normal" girl away from her man with her sexy wiles. Then we had the strange behaviour of Mia's father, who actually and literally refused to hear what Frida's mother was telling him, i.e. that Mia, his daughter, was in a lesbian relationship with her own daughter; and yet, within a very short while, he had changed from being in total denial to someone who admitted that he had had his "doubts" about his daughter before and now he simply wished her to be happy. But the final blow that convinced me, to my anger, that I had been led up the garden path all along, thinking that this was a serious study of passion (not love) between two women, was the pathetic ending that brought the whole film down to the level of a romcom – and not a very good one at that. I cannot believe that this was the ending that the auteur originally wanted. I suspect it was put in to satisfy the masses. We have Mia ditching her fiancé without a second thought (I do not know if we are supposed to feel she was in part justified because once, just once, he spoke a little harshly to her), dashing off wildly to beg Frida's mother to tell her where she had gone, racing to the airport, desperately trying to bypass the security man at the gate, watching, so we thought, the flight to Barcelona sailing off with Frida. The next thing is that we see Frida standing in the departure lounge looking wistfully at the plane. So she didn't go to Barcelona, huh? But that is not the end of it. She has gone on to take a plane, but not to Barcelona – that pretty little coastal town looks nothing like Barcelona – where the hell was it supposed to be? And in the twinkling of an eye – there is Mia prettily stepping up some pretty steps, accompanied by some pretty music, to see the lovely Frida sitting pensively on the sea wall, and the two of them with one look, pledge their eternities – I mean live happily ever after. Some chance! Frida will ditch Mia pretty soon, as she has already done to more than one of those who loved her. The writer would have done so much better to end the film with Mia being too late to stop Frida flying off to Barcelona. We would then be left to understand that things are not that easy, not that rosy for Mia's future, that you do not behave like she did without creating difficulties for yourself, and that in all probability the two of them are better apart, more likely to be happy in the long run apart, and that – we should be left to guess that this is a possibility – Mia will go back to her man, whom she seems to have loved well enough over the previous years, and certainly enjoyed sex with well enough, and will try to put things together again, but – our imagination will tell us – we do not know if she will succeed.

I had such a high expectations concerning this movie, but I had to be disappointed. It starts nicely, and it's totally that situation when you are intrigued 'how will they go from total indifference to loving each other?' Your answer is 'just like that'. I couldn't really see the development of the relationship, it just got out there from nothing. Two women, barely knowing each other for a few days, fall deathly in love. Yeah, sure. If there was some indication as 'why', then it would be okay. But they didn't even LIKE each other! In my opinion, it was unrealistic and boring. I don't recommend this film unless you want to watch just a quick, lesbian vanilla porn. Because this film was almost just that.

There were a couple things I like about this movie. One, that the lesbian character is in a relationship. Way too many of these straight-woman-in-a-relationship stories have the lesbian hanging out in an isolated world where, of course, she MUST convert a straight woman to her ways in order to have a lover. By taking that factor out, we can more easily believe Frida and Mia like each other, because they like each other. My second winning thing about the movie, Mia's bisexuality as a factor. Once that "comes out", it adds a layer to things that again helps makes this less about 'the only two that could must be' . Only this comes out WAY too late in the film. Life is complicated, but film's should unfold in a linear fashion where the viewer can justify character's actions along the way and if you show me a woman having sex (and seeming to enjoy it) with her man and then half way through the film have herself throw herself at a woman - then damn near run away from it. I'm still thinking she's a woman who's thought herself straight up to now and this 'new' emotion is causing conflict, fine, I'm on that journey with the character. Then to say 'hey, I've actually known I might be bisexual for awhile' feels like a cheat. I shouldn't have to re-watch the movie with the intent of redefining that character journey. There are twist and there are cheats, this just felt like a cheat. A lesbian movies that pulled off the questioning female with a past relationship well was 'Loving Annabelle' - as much as that was about the build to a love scene it at least was a logical build to a a love scene. It set up a character reluctant to deal with conflicts in her perception of her own sexuality really early in the film with simple visual clues to a pre-existing relationship.The thing that really turned me off about this film was the lack of respect for existing relationships. To have the feelings and walk the fine line of what to do with them is one thing - and great dramatic tension. Throwing people under the bus because there's a jones in your crotch is another. I think 'Imagine, Me, & You' did this particular bit about a thousand times better as did 'When Night is Falling'. In 'Imagine', in addition to developing a relationship between the characters for me to root for, I freakin' loved Heck. I didn't want him hurt and I respected Luce, because she didn't want to hurt him either. In 'When Night is Falling' Petra is aggressive in putting her interest for the other woman out there, but respects whatever line she draws in the sand - she also has NO relationship with the character's boyfriend. So while there is an affair present there, as in this film. Her mother isn't marrying the other character's father (as in Kyss Mig) or they haven't hung out and had dinner together (as in Imagine Me & You). Frida just doesn't seem to care how this affects other people. Frida not only had no issue with seducing her future Step-Father's daughter, she threw her girlfriend under the bus. And she'd had a longer relationship with the father than she had with Mia. Yet, she aggressively pursues Mia despite the stress it might put on her mother's relationship with Mia's father, who she allegedly likes. I never got over thinking Frida was a jerk for the way she treated those characters. And poor Tim. So he was picky about where they lived and had some grand opinions on there wedding. The dude wasn't a bad guy and it seemed like the movie wanted me to believe he was. Yeah, he gets aggressive once in bed, but he backs off when he realizes she's not into it. Also, if Frida and mom and new step-dad were all thrilled to have Tim around, why wasn't Elin hanging out with the fam? He obviously doesn't mind that Frida is gay as she isn't his daughter. They blatantly say this in the film. So if lovers are being invited to the table and Frida and step-dad get along so well, Elin's absence seems quite odd. Another slap in the face viewer 'cheat' early in the film is not revealing the lover exist earlier in the film. And what was the point of not even speaking Elin's name? Hiding Frida's sexuality until later in the film? She's practically undressing Mia with her eyes in the first two seconds, attraction, I get it. She likes girls. There's no value in hiding the girlfriend from the viewer, even if you hide it from Mia so she can have her 'so you like girls moment'. Also once you find out Mia is aware of her own bisexuality, all these moments feel a little like lies to the viewer. I bought sexual confusion in 'Loving Annabelle' (thin as plot was there) way more than I bought it here. The two women the film wanted me to root for were such horrible unfeeling people to their lovers in this film, the people and relationship I rooted for was the one between the parents. That stood the greatest test and showed far more character.

It's a Swedish Film.Um. I don't know how to start this but it is just an OK-Movie for me. Its plot is pretty much like Imagine Me & You, only a bit more realistic and more explicit - which to tell, I am not a big fan of. But I really could have liked it even more. I could have liked it even more if they did not show us excessive make outs yet no more than a scene or two of the two girls 'really' getting to know each other. They hardly talked and then the next moment, they were so in love. Although of that, the actors and the story itself moved very well. I have to admit that there is something in the movie that just hooks you in to loving their relationship.Now another good thing. I liked how it is about a father who is a bit of homophobic - then after so lately, learning that it is about what is best and would cause happiness for your child. Although it showed that homosexuals are strange, in the end it proved that it should not be. A lot of clichés, but it fit well.SHAG ME, FRIDA.