Tudo de Novo, Mais Uma Vez

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.

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!

On her 40th birthday, Amelia is hit by a bus and wakes up in her bed to her parents singing "Happy Birthday". She reluctantly realises that she is 18 again and that the year is 2002. Her best friend Moa is throwing a party for Amelia, who turns out to be the popular hot girl ("every boy in school is in love with you" as one of them shyly tells her). In her 2024 (?) life not so much, she is bored, alone and feels lost in her adulthood. However, Amelia has to relive her 18th birthday over and over again with slight variations - in a very well known manner. (Plus: the movie has a few peculiar resemblances to Mårlind and Steins sadly underrated "Storm" (2005), more on that below.)

Nice story, nice acting, nice setting and costume (pink and pastels in abundance), nice 2002 markers, "nice" everything. The soundtrack is nice too. You get it.

"One More Time" could've been a complete disaster, painfully drowning in niceness - if it weren't for one thing: Hedda Stiernstedt in the lead, as Amelia. She alone carries the movie on her shoulders and makes it quite watchable, albeit immensely predictable. Stiernstedt is an absolutely perfect cast for this role, even at 35 she has the youthful look that actually works ... with just a grain of suspension of disbelief.

Well, the story is... nice, and keeps rolling in well-familiar tracks. If it's worth your time depends on how much you are into feel-good coming-of-age romantic drama, and how much pink/pastels your eyes can stand. And yes, if you are a fan of Teddybears Sthlm (I am!) it helps, too.

With that said, it wouldn't hurt if Netflix levels up the request for writing skills, just a tad or so.

Similarities to "Storm"? A certain kind of accident in key scenes, and moreover: the answer is hidden in a secret box. Yup.

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.

Just watched it on Netflix with a spare 90 minutes and really enjoyed it. Sure, it's a a Groundhog day retake, but then that itself wasn't original. Both stories are as old as time itself. But they at least call out the previous film as part of the plot.

It has a great message (look after your friends!) and is acted well by all involved, with great characters.

The only issue would be that Hedda Stiernstedt looks far too young to be 40. In fact when I watched the trailer I thought that she was playing Amelia's 18 year old version!

I'd call it a bit of light-hearted fun, definitely worthy of your time. And it did get me feeling like I should try to reconnect with some people from my past...