Ohlin, Blok and Fredriksson's Swedish award-winner, SIMON & THE OAKS, opens

An ultra-classy melodrama with such a riveting story line that you'll likely be hooked from scene one, SIMON AND THE OAKS is as impressive an adaptation of novel to film as I have seen in some time, beating out even the recent and quite good Eye of the Storm. It is not surprising that the film garnered 13 Guldbagge Award nominations (the Swedish "Oscars"), of which it won two -- for best supporting actor and actress.

As directed and co-adapted -- with Marnie Blok and Linda Aronson, from the international best-seller by the late Marianne Fredricksson -- by Lisa Ohlin (shown at left), the film is a visual feast from its opening through its finale. Taking place in the Swedish countryside and along its gorgeous coastline, the movie posits a pantheistic connection between its hero, Simon, and the natural world that exists all around him, particularly those oaks which he frequents (he has a tree-house in one of them), speaks to and which seem to be speaking to him in return.

Fortunately (for my taste, at least) this pantheistic strain does not command the movie. Instead, what fuels it is a simple and compelling plot that involves Simon and his family and another boy named Isak and his family, taking them from the beginning of World War II -- during which Sweden maintained its long-held neutral political stance, while most of Scandinavia fell under the control of Nazi Germany -- through the first post-war decade. (Sweden did not exactly escape Nazi domination, I suspect, but was much more loosely controlled than were Denmark and Norway. Finland, meanwhile, was fighting wars with both Germany and Russia.)

This plot is fueled by the dual themes of parenting and parentage, nature and nurture; by music and art; and by Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Because the film is set in Scandinavia, an interesting "distance" from those horrible events is maintained. Scandinavian Jews were indeed rounded up and sent to concentration camps, and we see the devastating results via the character of one young woman, Iza, from Isak's extended family, even as Simon and his family are kept from harm -- often by the very ministrations and help of Isak's father (Jan Josef Liefers, above), a wealthy Jew who somehow manages to keep life, limb and fortune all intact.

The movie moves from Simon's and Isak's boyhood (above) through their years as young men (below), and although a couple of decades are covered, the filmmaker maintains a measured pace, and so the film's near two-hour length allows it to create characters that -- while they may not be as strong and detail-filled as the novel's -- are plenty rich enough to thoroughly involve us and carry us along.

Performances are strong throughout, and while it was Mr. Liefers and Cecilia Nilsson (as Simon's "aunt") who walked away with the awards, it seems strange to me that Helen Sjöholm (below, right) and Stefan Gödicke (below, left) as Simon's "nurture" parents didn't win, as well. The whole cast deserves a lot of praise for bringing to life characters that make up a tale that I shall remember for a very long time.

I suspect that word-of-mouth is going to be quite strong on this movie. So if you appreciate terrific storytelling and don't mind reading English subtitles, consider yourself advised. Alert your like-minded friends -- and enjoy!

Simon and the Oaks, from The Film Arcade (a new distributor worth watching, I think), opens this Friday, October 12, in New York City exclusively at The Paris, and the Friday following in five more cities, with a dozen more to come in the next few weeks. Click here to see a listing of all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters shown.

Daniél Espinosa's lazy Swedish crime thriller EASY MONEY opens Wednesday in NYC

Can a movie -- the Swedish film EASY MONEY, directed by Daniél Espinosa (the filmmaker is shown below) -- that begins so fast and frenetically, while introducing so many characters that you can barely keep up, also be unforgivably lazy? Try on this sequence of scenes for size. Our "hero," and I use the term loosely, is following a fellow (another loose hero) that he has been told to bring in to his crime boss. He follows, off-and-on losing his prey -- who, in turn, is being followed by a pair of bad guys. To keep following his guy, hero #1 must suddenly board a bus -- which he just misses. No problem. He simply takes the next bus that arrives, checking first to make sure it is going to the same location. Not a taxi, mind you -- to the driver of which he could shout, "Follow that bus!" -- but another city bus! You still with me? (Some viewers would have exited the theater at this point).

OK: we cut to a wooded area, empty of people, where the pair of bad guys have now caught hero #2 and are having a field day beating the shit of him. Suddenly, hero #1 is also in the same vicinity -- some bus service they have in Sweden! -- still apparently following his prey. As he does this, he looks down in the weeds and foliage around him and spies -- a gun! Now, I realize that we New Yorkers find guns on our streets all the time (I myself found one the other afternoon on the corner of Third Avenue and 28th), but this guy is in dense underbrush. Oh, well: when you need something, god -- or a very naive filmmaker and/or screenwriter -- will provide.

Still with me? Good. So how is our hero (played very well, given certain script obstacles, by Joel Kinnaman, shown above) going to save the day, not to mention the man he's been directed to bring in? He finally does something smart: Going back to the villains' car, parked nearby, he sets off the car alarm and then hides. The baddies leave their prey, by now beaten nearly to death, and run back to see what going on with their car. Great. Except, now, how is our hero going to extricate, in some believable fashion, this poor, beaten-to-near-death fellow, not to mention himself, from the clutches of the villains? Sure, he does have that gun, but, still.... I suppose you want to know how all this is accomplished, right? Well, so do I -- because, at this point, the filmmaker simply cuts to the next scene, in which hero #1 has hero #2 back in his apartment, where the injured man (a fine performance by Matias Varela, below) is being nursed back to health.

The above sequence is what they call a deal-breaker. Any movie-goer who will accept twaddle like this, will accept just about anything from anyone (such as the ridiculous twists and turns of the Oliver Stone trash, Savages, that opened this past weekend but that I don't have the time or energy to review just now). I suspect, in fact, that the rest of that beating/car alarm scene did exist at some point in time but was maybe too ridiculous to include in the film, so they simply cut it and jumped to the next scene. (The original Swedish version of the movie came in at 124 minutes; the American version is only 119.)

As for the rest of the movie, it's a standard no-honor-among-thieves brew -- full of drugs, dirty money, a little hot sex, and a lot of betrayals. While the action sequences are well-done, so what? When aren't they, these days? You may already be familiar with the work of director Espinosa (of Swedish/Chilean descent) via Safe House, another barely believable thriller with "good action sequences," that hit theaters earlier this year and is now on DVD. Easy Money, made the year before, was undoubtedly the calling-card movie that got Espinosa Safe House, but it is not -- despite the Martin Scorsese presents atop the credits, nor distribution from The Weinstein Company -- anything special.

Whatever distinction's on hand comes from its three male leads, led by U.S./Swedish dual citizen/actor Kinnaman, who apparently speaks both Swedish and English super well and gives a good performance in whichever country he's working (the recent cable TV version of The Killing, Safe House, Fincher's version of The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo, and even The Darkest Hour). Here, he's a slick-backed blond young man who is desperately trying to rise above his Swedish station in life and so tries crime. Silly boy. Mr. Varela, on the other hand, plays a rough-and-tumble type whose escape from prison begins the movie. He's the character we end up rooting for perhaps the most, which makes the movie's end a tad more acceptable.

The third wheel -- another criminal exhibiting some slight decency and intelligence -- is a fellow named Mrado (played by Dragomir Mrsic, above) whose character comes saddled with a precious little girl. I must say that the females in the movie (Swedish actress Lisa Henne, below, right, plays Kinnaman's love interest, while Annika Ryberg Whittembury plays Varela's upset sister) are little more than clichés used to push the narrative forward or provide an occasional sex and/or family scene. (Oh, and would someone please tell me why the top Serbian criminal kingpin does what he does near the movie's conclusion. This nonsensical move renders super-intelligent just about anything in Savages.)

The movie's title is of course ironic. Yet one does wonder when characters will ever learn and moviemakers will finally tire of teaching us that, Hey, kids: There is no easy money, and if you lie down with dogs, expect to get up with fleas. If these life lessons strike you as new and original, by all means take a chance on Easy Money, which opens this Wednesday, July 11, at Film Forum in New York City. I can't find on the film's website any additional playdates, but perhaps, when The Weinstein Company gets around to announcing same, it will post them here.

Straight-to-DVD: Ian McCrudden's A SWEDISH MIDSUMMER SEX COMEDY

Yes, the title should remind buffs of both Ingmar Bergman and Woody Allen, and this is certainly intentional on the part of the film's distributor. I suppose those references are about as good as any, and the film you'll see, if you choose to buy or rent this 2009 endeavor, should at least vaguely remind you of Smiles of a Summer Night and A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy. That it does not come within a mile of the hem of either director's garment is no surprise. But it still manages to offer some comedy and melodrama set in a gorgeous location and featuring nice looking actors and a little nudity now and again.

Directed and co-written by an American, Ian McCrudden, shown at right (at least I believe he is an American -- he's credited as attending Stanford University), the movie stars a nearly all-Swedish cast plus Luke Perry, is spoken in both Swedish and English, and takes place in a large house on some gorgeous waterfront property in Sweden. So, yes, there's a sauna, skinny dipping and relatively frequent sex on parade. Several couples, matched and mis-matched, join for a midsummer getaway, with one woman very pregnant, another hoping to be, and a third about to be married -- though perhaps not entirely sold on the idea.

Into the mix arrives Mr. Perry (above, of that famous zip code), who plays the college roommate/best friend of one the Swedes, and, as the extra (and still quite attractive) man in the bunch, begins a flirtation or two. Things happen, most of them fairly predictable but still occasionally amusing, and once in awhile, even surprising. We're clued into some Swedish culture and mores, and we meet some good actors, whom we will hope to see again in even more interesting movies, down the road.

One of these is is blond young lady, Lisa Werlinder (shown above: think of her as the Swedish Reese Witherspoon) who proves a beautiful and appealing performer, as do most of the Scandinavian cast, in the midst of which, Mr. Perry, always the professional certainly holds his own. The crew, too, does a nice job in the cinematography, editing and music departments (some fun songs are chosen to decorate the sound track).

You won't write home to mom (or your film buff friends) about this movie, but it should provide some laughs along with nice scenery (of the both human and environmental sort). So if you can't afford a Swedish island vacation this year, here's the chance to take one -- very briefly (86 minutes) and on the cheap. A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy hits the streets this coming Tuesday, June 21. According to its distributor, GoDigital Media Group, you can now get it on DVD, look for it on iTunes, or add it to your Netflix queue.