Daybreak Movie Review

With the myth persisting that Swedes are prone to taking their own lives, before writing this review I quickly googled ‘Sweden suicide rates’. Disappointingly, I found out that Swedish people are nothing special in the suicidal league tables and in fact much less likely to kill themselves that people from the former Soviet bloc. Morbid much? I hear you cry. Stay with me, gentle reader. All will be revealed.

Agnes (August) and Rickard (Eklund), a married couple with two sons, enjoy all the trappings of a successful middle class existence. An eminent heart surgeon, he’s waiting to hear about a new job in Malmo; Agnes thinks he already has the job, as they have sold their beautiful house. Their best friends Sofie (Richardson) and Mats (Andree) are invited for dinner – they also have some news, and a few unpleasant surprises up their sleeves.

Anita (Petren) was unceremoniously dumped by her husband Olof (Andersson) when he fell in love with Petra (Krepper), a much younger woman. Anita ekes out a perilous existence dealing prescription drugs; she dwells bitterly on her sense of injustice as she imagines her ex and his new wife in their comfortable home. One evening, when it all gets too much, she decides to pay them a visit.

Anders (Krepper) is a builder with a good heart; he works seven days a week to give his wife and daughter all the material things that he thinks they need. His wife tries to tell him that they would rather have his time, and he means to stop, but then he meets Knut (Hirdwall) and his wife Mona (Lindstrom), who need a builder. They offer Anders a cash-in-hand job that he cannot refuse.

The film interweaves these three stories during the course of a single night that ends at Daybreak (how symbolic). I was very tired when I went to see it, which probably didn’t help, but I scribbled down some notes during the screening, which I transcribe for you here:

• Terrible soundtrack.
• Miserable people.
• Depressing tale of urban blight.
• Bunch of freaks.
• Dispels myth about attractiveness of Scandinavians.
• 2 equally weird/random groupings and then the more banal infidelity/professional jealousy.
• Incredible quantities of alcohol.
• Violent.
• Noisy.
• Depressing.
• 108 minutes has never felt so long.

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