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Daybreak

2003, Movie, R, 108 mins

Daybreak: Review

DAYBREAK | OM JAG VANDER MIG OM
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Set over the course of one eventful day in the lives of three unrelated Swedes, writer-director Bjorn Runge's coolly photographed, intricately plotted feature is always interesting in its execution, but disappointingly pat in its resolution. The day gets off to a bad start for philandering coronary surgeon Rickard (Jakob Eklund), who learns that the offer of a prestigious new job at another hospital has been rescinded. Not only has his old position already been filled, but Rickard and his wife, Agnes (Pernilla August), have already sold their beautiful waterfront home. Jobless and homeless at noon, Rickard loses a lot more that evening. His good friend, Mats (Leif Andree), and Mats' wife, Sofie (Marie Richardson) — with whom Rickard has been callously carrying on an affair — arrive for dinner and Rickard learns that not only is turnabout fair play, but it can be exceedingly cruel. The morning's a bit brighter for workaholic bricklayer Anders (Magnus Krepper), who, even though he's promised to spend the day off with his neglected wife (Camilla Larsson) and daughter (Angelica Olsson), accepts a lucrative under-the-table job from a hysterically paranoid couple. Knut (Ingvar Hirdwall) and Mona (Marika Lindstrom) are convinced that it's only a matter of time before immigrant hordes break into their home to rape and pillage and, to protect themselves, they'll pay Anders 45,000 crowns to transform their split-level ranch into a virtual bunker, bricking up the windows and doors and leaving only a few holes big enough to accommodate a gun barrel. Anders agrees, though it will mean entombing them both inside. Aging Anita (Ann Petren, in a startlingly ferocious performance), meanwhile, has also decided on a desperate course of action. It's been three years since her husband, Olof (Peter Andersson), whom Anita nursed back to health after a serious car accident, left her for his physiotherapist (Sanna Krepper), and Anita has become the kind of bitter curmudgeon who snarls at her friendly neighbors. Convinced that Olof cheated her in the divorce settlement, she breaks into the house they once shared and holds her ex-husband and his new wife hostage at stun gun-point. Runge deftly cuts back and forth between his stories, keeping each narrative entirely separate from the others (save for one brief moment) and maintaining considerable forward momentum and thematic coherence. Each of Runge's three characters is headed for a dark night of the soul and a moment of self-realization that will force them to redefine their conceptions of themselves. How disappointing, then, that their resolutions should seem so commonplace, a series of Dr. Phil-style denouements that fail to live up to the promise held in the telling of each individual tale. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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