"Jesus lever" ("Jesus is alive") holds a fascinating and interesting story filled with questions about religion, the loss of loved ones - and how to deal with your father's new wife.
Felix hates Helen, his stepmom, and his relation to Tomas, his dad, isn't really that great either. Tomas is the local priest in the tiny town on the swedish countryside the family resides in, and he is clearly embarrassed that his only child is the singer in a band often accused of being satanists. So when someone starts vandalizing the graves on the graveyard, everyone's eyes turn to Felix; even though his own mother's grave was among those destroyed.
What makes this movie as lame as it sometimes is, is probably the bad acting. Sverrir Gudnason, who plays Felix, is clearly too unexperienced to have the lead in a movie. That's sad, because you can see he hides a great deal of talent. Give him a couple of years and he will be a brilliant actor. All in all, the acting is not that good, but I would guess you should hold that against the director, Bengt Johansen, more than the actors.
Johansen manages to waste a story that could have been made into a really interesting movie. The questions raised are worth a thought, even though Johansen doesn't have the guts to take the issues all the way. My compliments to his manuscript (co-written with Stig Larsson) and the beautiful camerawork. Sad to say, but "Jesus lever" falls into all the traps there are for shortmovies. The character's aren't fully developed and the story has many plotholes. Still "Jesus lever" made a great impact on me so I must have been able to find something good in this otherwise kind of messy movie. Give it a try and judge yourselves, because it's still worth watching.
