Crimes of Passion: Death of a Loved One (2013)

Puck Ekstedt, doctoral student in literature, is invited by her supervisor Rutger to spend Midsummer with him and his wife at their summer house on an isolated island. When he reveals that ... See full summary »

Director:

Birger Larsen

Writers:

Maria Lang (novel), Jonna Bolin-Cullberg (screenplay)

Stars:

Tuva Novotny, Linus Wahlgren, Ola Rapace

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tuva Novotny	...	Puck
Linus Wahlgren	...	Eje
Ola Rapace	...	Christer
Suzanna Dilber	...	Ann
Peter Viitanen	...	Carl Herman
Andreas Utterhall	...	Georg (as Andréas Utterhall)
Ida Engvoll	...	Lil
Fanny Risberg	...	Marianne
Gustaf Hammarsten	...	Rutger
Sanna Krepper	...	Viveka

Storyline

Puck Ekstedt, doctoral student in literature, is invited by her supervisor Rutger to spend Midsummer with him and his wife at their summer house on an isolated island. When he reveals that the young historian Einar Bure will be there too, Puck gladly accepts. When she arrives to the Midsummer party on the island, she finds a bunch of young people, whose lives are entwined since their student days. She quickly notices a web of tensions between them, both erotic and distressing. These tensions grow, when Rutger's former fiance Marianne Wallman unexpectedly turns up with her girlfriend Viveka Stensson. Next morning Puck stumbles upon Marianne's dead body in the wood. Puck and Einar go with the motor boat across the lake to call for Einar's friend Christer Wijk, chief of the national homicide investigation team. When Christer arrives to the island, the boat's motor breaks down. There is no other boat, and no telephone, so now all of them are isolated together on the island. The murderer ...

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Plot Keywords:

sweden | female nudity | skinny dipping | dead body | summer | 

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Genres:

Crime

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Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

Besides the three recurring roles the cast credits are alphabetized by character name.

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Connections

Followed by Crimes of Passion: Tragedy in a Country Churchyard (2013)

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Soundtracks

Solo tengo mi son
Composed and performed by Karl Frid and Pär Frid

User Reviews

Fifties Thriller with Strong Agatha Christie Echoes

Set on a remote island in the late Fifties, DEATH OF A LOVED ONE has strong echoes of Agatha Christie: at one point a character likens the situation to that of TEN LITTLE INDIANS. A group of people are isolated on the island, with no means of communication with the mainland except by boat - and the boat has been put out of action. Hence they have to stay together in a pressure-cooker situation where one of them is a murderer.

Unlike Christie, however, Birger Larsen's production has at least two investigators - Police Inspector Christer (Ola Rapace), a thirtysomething man with a yen for young women; and Puck (Tuva Novotny), a university lecturer writing her thesis on murderers in literature. Her boyfriend Eje (Linus Wahlgren) is likewise an academic, only his subject is medieval architecture. Together they solve the mystery of the serial killer: Christer does all the spade-work, but it is Puck who unearths the final piece of the jigsaw so that the murderer can be identified.

The atmosphere on the island is like a pressure-cooker, with every character having a motive for murder. Most of them have either been in love with one another; some are conducting affairs clandestinely; others are more open in their sexualities. Rutger (Gustaf Hammarsten) is especially nervous, as he realizes to his cost that his complicated love life has been brought out into the open. His current wife Ann (Suzanna Dilber) tries to blot out the truth through housework, but finds the mental effort too much for her. Lil (Ida Engvoll) bears more than a passing resemblance to Marilyn Monroe; she adopts a more liberal approach to her relationships. Such characterizations help to contribute to an episode that keeps us guessing right until the end.

The Fifties recreations are historically exact - complete with big cars, flowing skirts and perpetual smoking - but they seem almost too perfect, creating a chocolate-box world whose inhabitants' behavior is morally doubtful, to say the least. Perhaps director Larsen wanted to emphasize this contrast, in a manner similar to that of the British Miss Marple adaptations.

DEATH OF A LOVED ONE unfolds at a slow pace, the action kept deliberately low-key until the denouements. In terms of content and form, it seems especially familiar for a televised whodunit, but I am convinced that the series has potential for further development. I look forward to the next episode.

Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

8 March 2013 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Crimes of Passion: Death of a Loved One

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$569,491

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pampas Produktion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1