Sprängaren

Well, what can I say. This movie is a slow, typical swedish crime story on the silver screen. As such, it's nothing spectacular. But since I'm a journalist, I can appreciate the many scenes taking place at the newspaper. They are good, if only a little too tame. If people only knew how cynical journalists really are, they'd be chocked. Sometimes reality's more extreme than fiction...

Sprängaren is my second familiarisation with a film based on Liza Marklund's work and Annika Bengtzon's character (after Den Röda Vargen) and - being a follower of Scandinavian crime films - I cannot say I am impressed (again). True, I have not read any Marklund's books either, but the plot is too fabulous and long, contains under-action not providing additional value to the film (e.g. disagreements within the newspaper and at home), and the evildoer could be guessed too soon. Well, there are some good performances (Helena Bergström as Annika Bengtzon and Örjan Ramberg as Anders Schyman), but overall course of events has holes and all the motives of the evildoer remained without thorough explanation.

Even if you prefer crime dramas with strong female leading characters, I would definitely recommend Forbrydelsen, Bron/Broen or even Dicte or Anna Pihl, all exceeding in smoothness and maintaining tension.

Colin Nutley is known for regarding Swedes in an English way, although he makes us recognize ourselves very well. He has always been fair to us. In "Sprängaren" he is telling a story about life on a Swedish evening paper. The plot, which begins with the bombing of the new imaginary Stockholm Olympic Stadium, isn't really interesting however. The values in this movie are to be find in the relations between the reporters.

Helena Bergström is here making her best part for quite long. According to Swedish journalists, this is how life is at an editorial staff of this kind. The problem is the thriller element. Mr. Nutley makes the final solution a little too easy and one asks oneself, was it really necessary to make a thriller at all, when you are making a movie about this kind of newspaper people?

It sucks! Not the film, that's quite good. What sucks is that there hardly exist a single Norwegian who dares to make good films - like the Swedes do. WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO LEARN???! When?` Sprängaren is a good movie, well worth an eight, but it could have been a little more fast-paced, like to book, and then it would have deserved maybe even a niner...

Well, it's been a long time since I've seen a movie as boring as this one. It's a thriller but there are no thrills. There's no pace either, the film moves as slowly as a snail, and it is more a drama about a newspaper than a thriller about a murderer. I've read Liza Marklund's novel, upon which this movie is based, and I quite liked it, but it is obvious that it doesn't work as a movie. At least not when Colin Nutley's at the helm. I've never wanted to sleep at the cinema before, but this time I actually longed to close my eyes and take a nap (I didn't, though). I recommend this film if you're an insomniac in need of a cure... I mean, it's not even bad enough to be funny. (3/10)