"Lilja 4-Ever" has been eagerly anticipated in Moodysson's native Sweden after the critical acclaim that his previous two films have received. I cannot imagine that I am the only person who came out of it disappointed. On one hand we can be thankful that he has shunned the usual "feel-good" style of Swedish cinema (family is happy, something bad happens, everyone is down but ultimately turn things around) and presented something a lot darker, but on the other hand in doing this he has lost the essential elements of a good film.
The film lacks narrative and fails to evoke any emotions from the viewer beyond disgust. In an unexpected display of lazy film-making he resorts to extended scenes designed purely to nauseate the audience. There is no attempt to explore why things happen, he merely presents Lilja's situation again and again and again. The storyline, what little there is, feels unnecessarily contrived as Lilja falls from bad situation to bad situation to bad situation.
Ultimately the film feels as if it has been designed purely to start debate (or maybe just moral outrage) in the tabloid newspapers that always feel a need to be outraged about something. For me the film was just lazy. It takes no effort at all to make a film about prostitution that disgusts the viewer - a decent director can do that in his sleep - yet that is all Moodysson has managed to do.
The film lacks narrative and fails to evoke any emotions from the viewer beyond disgust. In an unexpected display of lazy film-making he resorts to extended scenes designed purely to nauseate the audience. There is no attempt to explore why things happen, he merely presents Lilja's situation again and again and again. The storyline, what little there is, feels unnecessarily contrived as Lilja falls from bad situation to bad situation to bad situation.
Ultimately the film feels as if it has been designed purely to start debate (or maybe just moral outrage) in the tabloid newspapers that always feel a need to be outraged about something. For me the film was just lazy. It takes no effort at all to make a film about prostitution that disgusts the viewer - a decent director can do that in his sleep - yet that is all Moodysson has managed to do.