One More Time

As "One More Time" (2023 release from Sweden; 85 min) opens, Amelia is celebrating her 18th birthday. We then skip to day, as Amelia celebrates her 40th birthday. She quits her lousy retail job and instead goes to the pub to get drunk. Afterwards she fumbles and stumbles, and gets hit by a truck. When she wakes up, it's her 18th birthday again... At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this Swedish film liberally borrows and steals from Groundhog Day, even putting in Groundhog Day as part of the storyline. It also reminds of 19 Going on 30. In other words: this movie does not shine because of its (lack of) originality. But what it does do, and very well at that, is to showcase how a 40 yo woman looks back at her 18 yo self, and sees the many mistakes that she made back then. So the movie is filled with regret and it makes you realize that, when you get down to the very essence, the thing that matters more than anything else is: BE KIND to one another, starting TODAY.

"One More Time" started streaming on Netflix just the other day. At a mere 85 minutes, this movie just flew by, and I quite enjoyed it, more so that I had expected. If you liked Groundhog Day or 13 Going on 30, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I wouldn't say I was excited to watch this because we know how all time travel and time loop movies go. Similar to Groundhog Day Amelia, a 40 something woman, who's quite a loser, relives her 18th birthday day after day. And while it's fun, she realises that life at 18 is really self centered.

Although the movie is predictable, its beautiful to see the different interactions of the characters, all while realising that it's not about her. It's the nuances that do it for me. The story of rekindling relationships, of starting again even if it's 22 years later or having a second chance to do things right.

First, you need to know that this whole thing wraps up in a lesbian love story. Getting so tired of Netflix suggesting movies to me as "romance" but isn't what I am looking for. They need to have separate section for that. That being said this movie is objectively bad on its own.

The movie straight up rips off peggy sue got married / groundhog day. Amelia is 40 today. Her life is a mess. She works retail and is poor. Sitting at a bar after being fired from her retail job she runs into Fiona... a former childhood friend with the same birthday who is a successful rich singer. This leads Amelia to head to a time capsule both had buried when they were like 10 - where she is hit by a truck and ends up on her 18th birthday -- which forms a time loop she can't escape.

Amelia is a horrible person. Rude to her friends even as a mature adult. Not great to her parents. In fact when she realizes (after watching groundhog day) that she needs to be nicer to people... she does that for one day and that is it. The rest of the time she acts like an idiot.

Amelia finally gets out of the time loop after realizing Fiona was in love with her at 10. And she heads off to get right with that in present day. What? What? As if that is going to make everything wonderful? Huh? Of course Fiona has never given up on her 10 year old love and now they are all set.

This whole thing doesn't make a lick of sense.

We love time loop type movies and were leery of the ratings in the 5's. However we took a chance and quite enjoyed the film. Funny, and with a heart.

To get to the minimum number of characters I'll again say don't believe the bad reviews. Similar to Groundhog day and even has a clip from that movie. The main character evolves like Bill does, day after day.

I also like that at least some of the characters look like real people and not your typical pretty/handsome movie characters - though there's plenty of that too I suppose. But the best friend is a big girl which you don't see that often.

So - do watch it!

Just because the plot is to relive a significant day and as a result become a better person, does not put this Swedish movie in the same class with the incomparable Bill Murray. It doesn't even put it in the same school.

First the dubbing is dreadful. All the voices have rhe flat affect of dialog read off a script.

The second issue is the appearance of Amelia who is the same actor both as an 18 year old and a 40 year old. As a result, I was confused as the scenes shifted back and forth.

Third too much vapid giggling. That alone was enough to give it a reduced rating.

Fifth generally insipid acting and script. The ending was barely worth the time spent getting there.

I wouldn't have wasted my time but a NYTimes reviewer gushed over it.

Maybe if I was still 18, it would have appealed to me, but somehow I doubt it.