By William Wolf

THE LAST SENTENCE  Send This Review to a Friend

Based on a true character, Jan Troell’s imported film “The Last Sentence” gives a compelling account of Swedish journalist Torgny Segerstedt’s war in print against the rise of Hitler and Nazism. The saga is also mixed with the intimate story of his relations with the women in his life. The heroic writer earns respect for the stand he took despite some of the powers that be in his country opposing him. But as depicted here, he comes across as thoroughly self-absorbed and a bit of a louse in the way he treats his wife and mistress.

Troell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Klaus Rifbjerg, knows how to make an involving film (“The Emigrants,” for example). This one is juggling two arenas, the public and the private. The public one comes off best, although the personal relationship aspects also hold interest as a result of convincing acting, with Jesper Christensen as the dedicated, strongly opinionated journalist for a leading Swedish newspaper, Ulla Skoog as his wife Puste, who is wracked by depression, and Pernilla August as Maja, who is Jewish and an heiress and is married to Axel (Bjorn Granath), the editor of the paper for whom Segerstedt works.

There is a strange relationship between the journalist and his boss. They are friends, even though the editor knows of the affair with his wife. There are moments when the friendly situation is somewhat hard to believe. People have been fired for less.

The film makes a point of the journalist’s high stature and reputation as a man of principle when it comes to his work and views. He has a problem in that Sweden is trying to stay neutral in World War II. There is concern that Segerstedt’s crusading will upset the effort and do a disservice to the country. On the other hand, Segerstedt shows no fear of branding such timidity as shameful appeasement. This struggle is the most interesting aspect of the film.

Segerstedt died shortly before Hitler did, but when the journalist lies on his death bed in the film, he is assured that he has outlived Hitler, a falsehood told to make him feel he has achieved one of his major goals.

As with various film biographies, one must assume embellishment for the sake of drama, and one gets that primarily in the portions of the film in which the protagonist is trapped between the women in his life—a frustrated, emotionally disturbed and resentful wife and a doting mistress. All of this adds up to a mostly engrossing historical drama. A Music Box Films release. Reviewed June 20, 2014.

  

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