As one of the few people unlucky enough to have paid for a cinema ticket to see "Lithivm", I have to agree with a Swedish film critic who called this film "Probably the worst film in the history of Swedish Cinema" (all other big city critics tended to agree, more or less).
Let's start with what the film does NOT have: It completely lacks story and comprehensible plot, the script has been written without even the slightest bit of research, it does not have a single piece of dialogue that feels natural; this paired with an utter lack of direction makes not only the amateur actors, but even the professional, good actors (who for unknown reasons took part in this thing) look absolutely ridiculous.
The film features irritating editing, and, most of all, it has a cinematic style that is simply nauseating. It was, for no particular reason, shot on (anamorphic) 16mm reversal colour film, with a blow up to 35mm scope. In short, this means the film is grainier than your Uncle Walt's old home movies from the 70's. Add to this the fact that the film has not been lit AT ALL, making it murky and dark at best. To finish off my comments on the "cinematography", it was shot hand held, something that seems to be in fashion lately. That's OK when you do it for a reason, but that doesn't seem to be the case with this film. Also, the hand held work seems to have been done by someone taking pride in constantly shaking the camera energetically, and jumping, not walking, whenever movement is called for. The whole thing actually made me feel physically ill after half an hour (this is the first time that has ever happened to me). I'm still amazed I didn't walk out of the cinema, I suppose having paid for a ticket combined with the jawdropping stupidity of the film made me stay to the dreary end.
The film well deservedly bombed completely in Sweden, despite a surprisingly large advertising campaign, and I was awestruck that it's been selected for inclusion in the Hollywood Film Festival. Why? The Millennium Turkey Awards (should there ever be such a thing) would have been so much more appropriate.
So, is there nothing good about the film? Actually there is. Out of the 2 hrs and 7 minutes running time, about 15 seconds worth of footage looks really cool. It's: 1. The main title, one of the best looking I've seen in a Swedish film, and 2. a bit with a corpse appearing in a mirror about half way through; the only slightly scary/interesting moment in a film that claims to be a thriller...
To conclude, and to answer the question made in the Summary above, YES, this is positively the worst Swedish film ever made, and you will do yourself a big favour by not watching it. Ever.
