Hotell

Alicia Vikander proves once again why she is Sweden's rising star with yet another strong, intense performance. She plays the smug Erika whose secure existence with a stable boyfriend, a hip job and a high class apartment collapses after a complicated birth. She joins a frustrated therapy group that is trying to find an answer to why they are so unhappy. Together, they spontaneously check into a hotel to escape their reality by being someone else. The day after they realize that they do not want to go back, and check into a new hotel ...

With warm humor and lovingly portrayed characters who grow and develop from their stereotypical shell, Lisa Langseth manages to make a fun but at the same time serious, original work and it is liberating in the Swedish film industry where most of the films are detective stories, slapstick's or comedies.

There is an evocative darkness relieving the more hilarious situations. Langseth takes its characters seriously and chooses no easy solutions to their problems. They are charming and often funny, yet tragic, broken souls on a desperate search for answers to impossible questions. It may be considered pretentious and the resolution is a bit obvious but the director and the actor's stubborn beliefs makes the story pull through.

David Dencik is ridiculously good as an Indian-loving oddball with a mother complex. He is impressively honest and naked (even literally) and transforms what could become the gang's geek to an exciting underdog The other actors are able to breathe life into their characters, including Simon J. Berger in his few scenes as the boyfriend.

Ingela