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UNDER THE SUN Send This Review to a Friend
Too much is unbelievable in this lyrical but overwrought Swedish countryside saga. First of all one has to accept that 39-year-old Olof (Rolf Lassgard), who lives a lonely existence on a farm after the death of his mother, is still a virgin. Then one has to accept that the beautiful Ellen (Helena Bergstrom), a sophisticated city woman who answers his ad during the summer of 1956 for a "young lady housekeeper," would fall for farm life and be sexually drawn to the nice but lumbering Olof. Of course, we immediately wonder about the past that has led her into such a situation. But even so, Ellen and Olof make an odd couple, to say the least.
The situation is complicated by the friendship between Olof and the younger, conniving and overly brash Erik (Johan Widerberg), who has been managing Olof's finances and milking him like a cash cow. Erik, with Widerberg giving an over-the-top portrayal, gets the hots for Ellen and can't see how she can be attracted to Olof, and her rejections of his advances compounds his jealousy.
There is a sweetness about the unlikely relationship that develops between Ellen and Olof, and Bergstrom is a knockout in the looks department. Director and co-screenwriter Colin Nutley struggles to make the film special, and although I wanted to like it more than I did, the improbabilities and the melodramatic plot development left me wondering how it could have become a best foreign language film Oscar nominee. A Shadow Distribution release.
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