User reviews

SHADOW ISLAND tells the story of a Swedish meteorologist who barely remembers his father due to apparent suicide who, based on instinct and newly discovered evidence, decides to investigate what his dad was doing on a small secluded island on his last assignment. Once there, he finds a lot more than expected.

There was enough material here to turn this into a top notch thriller. The movie had genuinely unexpected twists and turns, and ultimately an interesting plot, but somehow it all added up to less than than the sum of its parts.

Early scenes in which a background radio mentions the accession of Sweden to NATO due to Russian aggression against Ukraine foreshadow that eventually the story will take on a geopolitical dimension, but even that ultimately serves just as background for a tale of unexpected family connections.

The criticism at the shortsightedness of each generation of people who do the dirty work for their governments, and thereby burden the next generation with painful memories and guilt is right on point.

So the film does a lot of things right. However, the dreamy filming style with flashbacks, flash forwards and dream sequences does not really mesh well with the plot as it sucks out most of the tension and suspense. Also, there is a slightly confusing point on whether the story alleges that the Swedish government or just a Swedish rogue group was secretly cooperating with Russia to spy on NATO. Finally, the assassination scene at the end leaves the movie on a weak note, since it is not entirely clear whether it succeeded and the assassin was unexpectedly clumsy, apparently.

All in all, a thriller that fell short of its potential.

No pun intended - and I had to really think about that one to be honest. Well who am I kidding? Most of the puns are sort of intended. Anyway back to the movie that has a son looking for answers - answers concerning his father and what he was working on (or for?). He even risks his marriage and his job and lies to people near to him to go to an island ... well he finds quite a lot of things there.

Apart from items and maybe some answers .. also living things. Living things that we would call human of course. A woman to be more precise is one of the first he gets in contact with. And well they are both good looking ... but that will not take too much away from the movie and the story ... it will actually add to the story - more layers, more secrets to be uncovered.

It is best to watch this without much knowledge - so you discover most of it alongside our main characters ... and there is much to discover ...