The Swedish Theory of Love

Let me say this first: I'm not a big fan of documentaries, because I watch movies to be immersed in a different world, away from 'real life'. In general fiction and romanticized movies only appear to do the trick for me.

Having said this, I find it quite intriguing that some reviewers have issues with this documentary's depth and (lack of) opinion. Why a documentary should have this eludes me. Wikipedia has a rather simple description of a documentary: "a nonfictional motion picture intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education, or maintaining a historical record".

That is what this documentary does do, without an enormous pain of an opinion. To me it tells a story about a highly sophisticated society which has issues most people don't know about and most Swedes don't care much about. Maybe it's just me - that I didn't know this yet - but I thought it quite educational. I live in a country that also prides itself for it's high level of individualism (Holland), but I think the Swedes gave that a whole new dimension, with a downside called isolation. One idea that particularly stuck with me is that (a high level of) certainty leads to boredom. The apparent emptiness in many shots showed this rather subtly and in general I thought the music nicely added to some of the statements made.

All in all, it may not be the best documentary made, but it is a peek into the real Sweden, which mostly gets overlooked. As another reviewer said, I think it would be wise to first watch this movie before deciding to move to the promised land, called Sweden.