A polished, highly impressive debut from Swedish director-writer Johan Brisinger, Suddenly is a superbly-crafted meditation on loss, grief and redemption.
The poignant tale centres on a father and son who bear physical and emotional scars from a tragic accident. The gently unfolding drama packs a significant emotional punch with a highly satisfying pay-off.
As It Is in Heaven’s Michael Nyqvist plays Lasse, an eye doctor whose world turns upside down after he’s involved in a car crash which kills his wife and youngest son. Lasse is so traumatised he can barely get out of bed, while the surviving son, 17-year-old Jonas (Anastasios Soulis), blames his dad for the tragedy.
After a suicide attempt, Lasse takes a colleague’s advice and takes Jonas to their summer house to try to rebuild their lives and reconnect with each other. They make some small progress until Lasse’s parents visit for the mid-summer celebrations, he gets drunk and flips out. Lasse’s concerned dad (Sten Ljunggren), a retired doctor, wants to take Jonas back with them, but he insists they can work it out.
For a long time, father and son cannot communicate, both haunted by painful memories and regrets. Ultimately Jonas finds some solace with the spunky, uninhibited Helena (Moa Gammel), while Lasse is drawn to his married neighbour Lotta (Catherine Hansson) with whom, the film suggests, he may have had an affair years ago.
This is an intelligent, moving and remarkably assured film from a writer-director who had just one screen credit, the short film Passing Hearts. Heading the uniformly excellent cast, Nyqvist gives a finely calibrated study of a man caught between grief, rage, guilt, self-pity and despair, and Soulis is an exciting talent. The film took home the audience prize at the 2007 Swedish Film Institute’s Guldbagge Awards, Sweden’s equivalent of the Oscars.
The original Swedish title, Underbara älskade, means Wonderful Beloved. Suddenly has an anodyne ring to it but there’s nothing bland about this lyrically beautiful, sad and inspiring film.
