Show Me Love
Sweden/Denmark 1998
Reviewed by Liese Spencer
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Åmål, Sweden, the present. Unhappy and unpopular, Agnes doesn't want a party for her sixteenth birthday, but Karin, her mother, insists. At first no one comes, but when a wheelchair-bound girl from school arrives, Agnes insults her and sends her away. Later, trendy Elin and her sister Jessica arrive. Agnes has a crush on Elin but the girls are only there to humiliate her. Jessica dares Elin to kiss Agnes. They run out laughing, leaving Agnes crying. Agnes tries to slash her wrists with a disposable razor.
Elin and Jessica leave for another party where they tell their friends what happened. Elin gets drunk and goes back to Agnes' house to apologise. The girls go for a walk and try to hitch a lift out of town. They share a passionate kiss. The next day, Jessica is curious to know with whom Elin is in love. Scared of her friend's reaction, Elin doesn't phone Agnes but begins going out with Johan instead. At school the following day, Agnes is bullied about being a lesbian. When Elin ignores her, Agnes slaps her. Elin loses her virginity to Johan but is bored by their dates. After looking through Agnes' computer files, Karin discovers her crush on Elin.
At school, Elin hustles Agnes into a toilet to tell her she loves her. A crowd gather around the cubicle, banging on the door. Elin and Agnes come out together hand in hand.
Review
Teenagers Elin and Jessica live in a cramped flat on a quiet housing estate in a small town where nothing ever happens. Exhausted by ennui, Elin suggests going to a rave, but Jessica has read in her style magazine that raves are "out". How typical, wails Elin, that raves should have come and gone from fashion without ever reaching Åmål. Across town, 16-year-old vegetarian Agnes is sitting out an unwelcome birthday party with her parents, a roast-beef buffet and a wheelchair-bound outcast from school whom she doesn't even like very much.
Set in a suburban hinterland of empty parks and deserted sports stadiums, Swedish director Lukas Moodysson's first feature is strong on seething inertia. Lonely lesbian Agnes spends much of the movie lying on her bed. The 'Miss Sweden' of her class, Elin kills time fighting with her sister or playing television bingo with her silent boyfriend. As the romance between the girls develops, the inaction reaches fever pitch: Agnes waits for a phone call; Elin abandons a party to hang off a motorway bridge spitting on passing traffic.
In Show Me Love's most exhilarating scene, Elin and Agnes try to hitchhike out of town. When a car stops, the girls get in and kiss in excitement. For a moment it's just them, the engine and the swelling sounds of Foreigner's 'I Want to Know What Love Is' before the driver orders them out. It's a sublime anti-climax in a series of disappointing deflations - Elin trying to get high on her mother's heartburn pills; kids aimlessly hanging around an outdoor café - but however banal their lives, Moodysson's characters are never boring to watch, thanks to the director's keen eye and ear for the epic bathos of adolescence.
Shot on reverse film stock, Moodysson's grainy, documentary-style drama gets inside the heads of its young protagonists to produce a believable teen-eye view of growing up. Slouching around in baseball caps and bad make-up, his cast of largely non-professional actors display all the awkward exuberance of real youth. Unlike the well-groomed stars of such Hollywood entertainments as Cruel Intentions or 10 Things I Hate about You, these young people are not allowed to play at being adults, but are trapped in a real teen purgatory, waiting for childhood to end and life to begin. Instead of earnest narration or precocious coming-of-age speeches, Moodysson uses intimate close-ups to illuminate his characters' emotional uncertainty. With her high forehead and grave gaze, the beautiful Rebecca Liljeberg gives a wonderfully expressive performance in the largely reactive role of Agnes. Equally arresting is Alexandra Dahlström's fidgety, frustrated Elin, a bottle-blonde sulk of thwarted rebellion.
Structured around the classic house party, Moodysson's story may be an old one - the taboo romance between lovers from different ends of the school spectrum - but his sharp script refreshes old themes. In one tender scene Agnes' father tries to comfort her by describing his triumphant return to a school reunion. "Yes, but Dad," his unhappy daughter replies, "I don't want to wait 25 years. I'd rather be happy now." In another Freudian aside, a group of shuffling boys compare mobile phone sizes: "Mine's longer and thinner, but yours is thicker." Originally released under the more telling title of Fucking Åmål, Lukas Moodysson's low-budget debut rivalled Titanic at the Swedish box office. Shot through with a wry humour and compassion, his winning drama deserves to do just as well over here.
Credits
- Director
- Lukas Moodysson
- Producer
- Lars Jönsson
- Screenplay
- Lukas Moodysson
- Director of Photography
- Ulf Brantås
- Editors
- Michal Leszczylowski
- Bernhard Winkler
- Art Directors
- Lina Strand
- Heidi Saikkonen
- ©Memfis Film
- Production Companies
- Produced by Memfis Film in co-production with Zentropa Productions/Film i Väst/SVT Drama Göteborg
- With support by Svenska Filminstitutet (Charlotta Denward)/Det Danske Filminstitutet (Mikael Olsen) Europeiska Unionen/Europeiska Gemenskapens Strukturfonder
- Co-producer
- Peter Aalbæk Jensen
- Associate Producer
- Anna Anthony
- Production Manager
- Malte Forssell
- Location Manager
- Anna Malini Ahlberg
- Casting
- Trollhättan:
- Anna Malini Ahlberg
- Stockholm:
- Imor Hermann
- Continuity
- Malin Fornander
- Script Consultants
- David Wingate
- Håkan Lindhe
- Costumes
- Maria Swenson
- Make-up
- Maria Swenson
- Titles
- Susanne Lund
- Optical Printer
- Gunnar Ahlgren
- Soundtrack
- "Drifter" by De La Cour, Boklund, Lindh, Lindh, Nilsson, performed by Yvonne; "Whirlwind", "I'll Be Gone" by Berggren, Broder Daniel, performed by Broder Daniel; "No dinero no amor" by Hallgren, Sagrén, performed by Betty n' Boop; "Blue Sky Black", "Funny Bunny Boy" by Lindgren, From, performed by Evelyn; "När vi två blir en" by Per Gessle, performed by Gyllene Tider; "U Drive Me Crazy" by Hogblad, Lehtonen, performed by Waldo's People; "Fantasy Dream World" by Stigsson, Rickstrand, Budak, performed by Combayah; "Fantasi för Elorgel No 34" by Björkman, Lukas Moodysson, performed by Karl-Heinz Glockmann; "Adagio per flauto: Archi e organo" by Tommaso Albinoni, arranged by Giazotto, performed by Gunilla von Bahr, Stockholms Kammarensemble; "I Want to Know What Love Is" by Jones, performed by Foreigner; "Lasse Kronér" by/performed by Hjalle & Heavy; "Danny's Dream" by/performed by Lars Gullin; "Simplicity" by Nordlund, Danielsson, Karlsson, Andersson, Souls; "Underground" by/performed by Broder Daniel; "Show Me Love" by Carlsson, Martin, performed by Robyn
- Sound Engineer
- Nils Nilsson
- Mixer
- Morten Holm
- Cast
- Alexandra Dahlström
- Elin
- Rebecca Liljeberg
- Agnes Ahlberg
- Mathias Rust
- Johan Hult
- Erica Carlson
- Jessica
- Stefan Hörberg
- Markus
- Josefin Nyberg
- Viktoria
- Ralph Carlsson
- Olof, Agnes's father
- Maria Hedborg
- Karin, Agnes's mother
- Axel Widegren
- Oskar, Agnes's brother
- Jill Ung
- Birgitta, Elin's mother
- Lisa Skagerstam
- Camilla
- Lina Svantesson
- Johanna Larsson
- Elinor Johansson
- Jessica Melkersson
- Elin's friends
- Bo Lyckman
- man in car
- Daniel Teider
- Johan's little brother
- Nils Björkman
- Bengtsson
- Per Larsen
- Kenneth Larsson
- teachers
- Karl Strandlind
- ice hockey coach
- Peter Teider
- Markus's friend
- Linda Malmqvist
- sobbing girl
- Christer Almar
- Michael Andersson
- Therese Andreasson
- Rialda Arifovic
- Sanella Arifovic
- Fredrik Arrelid
- Vanessa Babot
- Joséphine Bordi
- Sandra Boström
- Betty Carlsson
- Alain Carlstein
- Elias Chamoun
- Maikel Chamoun
- John Ole Dahl-Olsen
- Dlawer Dalawe
- Mikaela Eklund
- Elin Fransson
- Kim Fransson
- Fredrik Gunnarsson
- Lina Gustafsson
- Susanna Gustafsson
- Grazyna Göransson
- Peter Hildingsson
- Malin Hultgren
- Max Hylander
- Caroline Johansson
- Niklas Johansson
- Petra Johansson
- Daniel Karlsson
- Linda Karlsson
- Andreas Kvist
- Mårten Lauvall
- Jonas Lenberg
- Josephine Lewing
- Carl-Johan Lext
- Jonas Lindell
- Robert Lindqvist
- Frida Lundby
- Jonas Lönn
- Anton Löwek
- Rebecka Martikainen
- Emma Massey
- Andreas Mattson
- Modar Mohanna
- Elisabet Nilebäck
- Mikael Nordman
- Martin Nyholm
- Petra Nyman
- Joakim Olofsson
- Kalle Rosborg
- Vlora Shabani
- Martin Storåsenj
- Johanna Ström
- Jonna Sundqvist
- Patrik Ström
- Boyar Syla
- Linda Syla
- Magnus Thell
- Gustav Tågne
- Sofia Wennberg
- extras
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Alliance Releasing (UK)
- 8,032 feet
- 89 minutes 15 seconds
- Dolby
- In Colour
- Subtitles