Una Parte de Ti

I went into the film with high expectations due to critics's high praises but was let down repeatedly. A Part of You follows Agnes and her struggles after her sister (Julia)'s death in a car accident. Prior to her death Julia is the popular kid at school with a group of friends and the perfect boyfriend while Agnes is a misunderstood loner. Agnes begins to emulate her sister to cope with her grief; wearing the same clothes, engaging in the same risky behavior as her sister, trying to be buddy-buddy with Julia's friends, and even messing around with her late sister's boyfriend Noel.

The film holds tropes that should have you tearing up, a young person dies prematurely in a tragic way, their loved ones struggle with coping their death and the protagonist finds their way the grief to thrive despite their struggles. I found it difficult to empathize with the main characters, they were two-dimensional and the epitome of privilege. The film attempts to have great depth and shifts in Agnes's character but her actress (Felicia Maxime) relies heavily on the same mannerisms throughout the entire film to portray different emotions (hugging her arms to her chest, turning into herself, and a blank faced expression) that are very stereotypical and bland ways to portray for a teen girl going through immense sadness and insecurity, causing her character to fall flat.

The conclusion was predictable yet still forced. No issues get resolved, you are left with more questions than answers. No overall message is achieved in the conclusion other than 'maybe you shouldn't try to become your sister when she dies' and 'popular people aren't always happy'.

The casting choices were questionable. Zara Larson (Julia) and Felicia Maxime truly look like sisters but Larson's inclusion felt like a grab to get more viewers to watch the film through her immense following and previous success, similarly for Edvin Ryding (Julia's boyfriend).

We got to follow Agnes as she grieves through the loss of her sister in a devastating way. This story was absolutely beautiful and could definitely relate to many. The movie was really touching and the cinematography matched the feelings extremely well. We also got to see the beauty of Swedens nature. I thought Felicia and Edvin delivered an amazing job in their roles and the emotional scenes were astonishing. The scene where they're arguing outside in particular left me in chills. It was fantastic to see Zara in the movie as well! We all knew she's an amazing artist but who knew she could act too.

"A Part of You" aims at being a character-driven film that delves into the complexities of grief and adolescence. It follows Agnes, a 17-year-old girl portrayed by Felicia Maxime. The narrative unfolds slowly, as Agnes navigates the tumultuous emotions following the death of her popular older sister, Julia.

The film's weakness lies in its inability to capture the individuality of grief. It presents a teenage portrait that is intense but unrelatable.

The film is drawn out. Its slow build-up is intentional, mirroring the process of coming to terms with grief, but boring nevertheless. The movie does however, not shy away from difficult topics; a teenager coping with sudden and horrific loss.

A beautiful story about grief, self image and relationships. To some extent it's a coming of age story. But mostly it's about losing someone you love, secrets and how to move forward. It's dark and at times it cuts deep. I would say it's definitely 13+.

The footage is fantastic and the way they use the Swedish summer night lights it gives this movie such a unique feel.

Felicia Maxime delivers a wonderful performance. She is honest, daring and not once do I feel like she is acting. She embodies Agnes. What a star! This is not an easy role to portray.

Edvin is brilliant as always. His body language, eye contact and movements and the way he delivers his lines makes the character come alive.

This film contains major contributions from Felicia Maxime and Edvin Ryding - two stars of the hugely popular Young Royals Netflix Drama. I'm going to talk about the elephant in the room and the reason why I deducted at least 2 stars from my rating. In Young Royals, the actors themselves performed the English overdubs, at least that's what Ryding said in an interview. I don't know the reason for this, maybe it's union rules or something, but for A Part Of You the overdubbing was recorded in Los Angeles with a completely new set of actors. I'm an auditory and visual learner, and find my enjoyment of TV/Movies enhanced by having subtitles switched on, and when the OST is not English, the dubbed version also. So I watched APOY and the dubbing in places was painfully obvious. There were scenes where the lips moving and the voices did not mesh. And when the body movements of the actors on the screen don't match the voices out of my headphones you only get half a performance. It's a real shame - Young Royals proved that both Felicia and Edvin have got it in them to give stellar performances in English and Swedish.

But hey, what we do get from the actors on screen is great, really emotionally powerful stuff. It didn't make me cry, the way Young Royals did - God, that had me HOWLING. Plotwise, this reminds me of yet another Swedish drama, Tore, also on Netflix. I don't want to give a lot of the plot away, but Netflix really need to work on how they label their film genres. It seems that any film involving teenagers is a "coming-of-age" drama. So, without spoilers, this film centres on the death of a close family member, and how the surviving family and friends get to grips with it. It's not a coming of age , maybe a more appropriate label might just be "grief".

So I deducted 2 stars because in English it would benefit from a performance from the original cast. The third star is a cautionary deduction. Parents, I would not want my 15 year old kid watching this unsupervised. Although in some of the content categories you could say mild to none, eg there's very little sex/nudity, the level of teen alcohol/substance abuse is frightening. I feel it could either encourage kids to want to go to these kinds of parties, or scare them half silly. I think I'd fall into the latter group. The film is about a family member's death, from the point of view of the younger sister. I think a 15 year old watching this would need adult support and its very subject matter could be quite upsetting for them. Once again, the 15 certificate is Netflix wanting to bag the viewers who watched these actors in Young Royals - really an 18 certificate is more suitable.