Mitt liv som hund (1985)

Second viewing; first viewed on February 18, 1989.

English title: My Life as a Dog

Ingemar is a Swedish boy whose father is allegedly away on business somewhere in South America. He has a brother with whom he is always fighting, and a mother who is a bookworm and has a serious debilitating illness. When the burden of raising two kids on her own becomes too much for her, the boys are sent each to a different relative. Ingemar gets to live with a very nice uncle and his wife, along with a couple of elders (the uncle's parents, perhaps). On his new hometown, he makes many new acquaintances, most notable among whom a tomboy who likes him and is good at soccer and boxing.

While I may have been too severe with this film on my first viewing, I still do not get exactly what is so special about it. The situations and characters are obviously conventional, even in their occasional attempted unconventionality. I had a less excrutiating time on this second viewing, and acknowledge that the film, within its limits, is well-made and well-acted. For those interested, it offers a glimpse at Nordic people's sense of humor and sense of pathos, or what they were like in the early 1980s anyway. Given that most of the Western world liked the film, one may conclude that there is a vast receptivity for this kind of humor and pathos outside its country of origin. As a final note, I was curious about the historical circumstances, if any, which the presence of a Greek family in a Swedish house was supposed to mirror.

Rating: 41 (up from 28)