Vinterviken

If this film is accurate, Sweden today certainly looks different than it did in my parents time. If you like that, you will probably like this film. It was well acted, and is a competent drama.

But my biggest problem is that I have a difficult time accepting the premise that this young woman who looks 18 is going to have a romance with a kid who looks like he's 13.

We've seen this multiple times: poor boy falls in love with rich girl. Their romance is forbidden and eventually their different backgrounds becomes an issue.

Cliché storylines are ok, as long as the execution is well done. And that's the problem.

It's a visually stunning movie and the lead characters are adorable, but there was not enough development. Besides perhaps Sluggo (JJ's best friend) the viewer doesn't get to know their families and friends at all, so you don't care about them. We are introduced to their family dynamics but it goes nowhere. Their daily lives, who they are and their dreams and fears also doesn't matter much.

I feel like it was very slow paced and lacked substance. The climax is very sudden and lasts a few minutes, then there's an abrupt ending. When watching movies like this, we want to know the characters and root for their love. In this case we barely knew who JJ and Elisabeth were, so I genuinely didn't care if they would be together or not.

I looked forward to watching this film. Sadly, this was really bad.

The worst part is that this film had potential. The tone, setting and main themes are great. But the chemistry between the actors is missing. The main character elisabeth completely lacks personality. She looked bored and depressed the entire film and I struggle to understand why john john would fall in love with someone who seemed dead inside? 1,5 hours was not enough for this movie to be both a romeo and juliet film AND a youth gone bad story/struggling kid from the slums. There are side characters/plots who's presence feels unnecessary because they dont explore them: the evil grandmother and the selling of the summerhouse... elisabeths dead mother...john johns mothers evil boyfriend...the school theatre show... john johns best friends spiral into crime. Nothing in this movie gets resolved. No one gets redemption. No one gets rewarded for anything. And since I'm not at all convinced by j and e:s "lovestory" but am instead invested in how they will perform in school, jonh johns fabulous friends, jj's relationship with his mother - instead, it's a frustrating watch with little or no reward at the end. Are they bonnie and clyde now or what happened?

Overall i kinda liked it, but with a Netfilx budget a few adjustments here and there could have made this movie even more pleasing on the eye.

Its a good youth love story and different cultures meet.

Worth your time Check it out.

If you wanna chill with a good young-loveish movie with GOOD and A LOT of drama, this ones for you. It's very touching, and gives a lot of different emotions, mostly excitement and sorrow.

Very good actors.

The main character is also Muslim (I suppose, not sure) which hangs out with some pretty "Swedish" looking guys (Also not sure how swedish they are) That's really nice too.

There is home drama, Highschool drama, friend drama, love drama, every kind of drama and i was so in for it.

I'm 15 and it was just perfect, but my mom at 43 also liked it a lot, so it's pretty much for everyone, but NOT a family movie with kids under 13.

There is a little about shooting and stuff VERY LITTLE NOT AT ALL A LOT, so if your not into that, this may be slightly wrong for you.

Not one of my favorite movies, but almost there, and TOTALLY worth watching!