That Special Summer (2007)

Touches You

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

"Kid Svensk" is a fairly average coming of age film, set in the '80s though that hardly makes any difference. It raises some issues about Swedish and Finnish national identity and the difficulties of fitting into a different society and hating your nationality that would be familiar, I imagine, to many people worldwide, though we don't see much of it in the movie.The main character calls herself Kid Svensk, but her real name is Finnish. Her difficulty with her nationality is never really explored. She goes on a holiday to Finland, where she reunites with family, including a teenage male cousin she shares a room with. I don't know about Scandinavia, but I think most places would consider it improper for a boy and girl of that age to share a room, but the movie doesn't say anything about it, we just get a cut to them both in beds at right angles to each other.The boy begins to make fairly negligible advances toward the girl, but if you are a pervert, note well: there's no nudity or sex in the movie whatsoever. The closest they come is a single kiss.Kid is a thief and a girl who smashes things when she gets angry. Her mother's response to both seems remarkably dialed down compared to what a mother would do, realistically, in that position. I feel that Kid Svensk's character would be a lot more fleshed out if her mother was too, but she remains distant and enigmatic for reasons unexplained.Ultimately, there is a suicide attempt, if that is what it is, that seems completely out of nowhere and melodramatic. I wonder if the screenwriter wrote in the bits about Kid smashing things so that we can see an increase in her destructive behaviour that could lead to suicide attempts. Perhaps that is why her smashing things seems so out of place - it may have been added as an afterthought. Overall, "Kid Svensk" is watchable, but not realistic enough to really hit home.

This endearing and disarmingly beautiful little gem - a particularly authentic coming-of-age masterpiece set in the 80's Scandinavia - has just too many merits to be overlooked.Headstrong Kirsi, a Swedish girl of Finnish minority, has won a reporter contest for Radio Gothenburg. When her widowed and estranged mother decides to spend the summer in her homeland Finland, Kirsi (who has chosen to be known as Kid Svensk) decides to take a tape recorder and make a reportage about her stay in Finland.Soon it becomes clear that this is a summer that changes Kid's life. First love, very subtly narrated, and the homesickness and newfound love of mum (leading her to consider never to go back to Sweden again) - inevitably renders to a collision and eventually, deeper relationship between mother and daughter.The picture is so terrificly shot. And what the Nordic countries are famous for in cinema: capturing the angst and perception of children, without ever looking down or becoming childish, so very well done - in fact these are serious matters.What completely baffled me was the acting of young Mia Saarinen. She was able to totally carry this complex role of a young girl with the world on her shoulders. She's got a killer smile. The innocent-but-intelligent way she plays with a boy's feelings. The precociousness and totally unnaive curiosity to understand the world around her. Very well done for an eleven year-old girl.To sum it up - we have here a beautiful film, excellently acted and narrated. Big compliments for the director, and evidently looking promising for future projects!