Swedish Auto

'Swedish Auto' opens with a slow camera pan across the backyard of a Charlottesville auto-repair shop until the screen is filled with the image of a young greasy-haired loner sitting in the rusting hulk of a vintage Volvo. This is Carter - who needs no further introduction because Indie fans will have met his outsider cousins in numerous other micro-budget movies. Carter's life follows a regular routine - he rises early in his shack beside the railroad tracks before heading off to his job as an auto mechanic. At lunch-break Carter frequents a diner where he gazes longingly at pert waitress Darla, whom he lacks the courage to approach. Carter's eccentricities come into full bloom at dusk - after shutting up the workshop, he stalks a beautiful young violinist from UVA's music school back to her apartment, and watches the girl's practice sessions until she retires for the night.

Eventually Carter gets around to stalking Darla back to her own home, where he observes her being terrorized by her junkie mother's abusive boyfriend - and in due course Darla and Carter embark on a lukewarm romance. This new development leaves writer/director Derek Sieg struggling to keep his clichéd clunker on the road as Carter begins restoring the vintage Volvo to a gleaming ride fit for an oddball prince and his waitress princess. Unfortunately, tedium and implausibility result in total engine seizure long before the film's road-trip conclusion.