Sweet Dreams (2003)
Skagerrak is the story of being hit by happiness when you least expect it. In their late twenties and tired of partying their way around the world, Danish Marie and Irish Sophie come ashore in Northern Scotland. After another drunken night they are soon parted from all their accumulated cash. Out of money and out of luck ambitious Sophie pressures Marie into accepting a lucrative job as surrogate mother. Months on, Marie finds herself alone, life having taken a dramatic turn. Heavily pregnant, and wanting to terminate her pregnancy, she's on the run from the future parents, searching for Sophie's old flame, Ken. In a case of mistaken identity, Marie ends up in hiding with three strange men in a seedy Glasgow garage. But then happiness strikes again.
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At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Blistering performances.
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
For a little known obscure movie, it is one of my all time favourites. My sister recommended it to me many years ago. I have watched it a few times a year ever since. It makes me laugh and cry every time I watch it. I have a total girl crush on Iben, what a doll and so natural in front of the camera. The girl just isn't enough stuff! Bronagh Gallagher as the quirky and lovable Sophie. The hilarious rapport between Ewen Bremner, Gary Lewis, and Simon McBurney..so funny. The Glasgow touch just melts my heart. It's a sad and loving story about two friends...OK maybe a "girl movie" but touching all the same. Two friends falling on hard times after working their arses off on a ship. Trying to get their lives out of the shite but poor Marie is left all alone when Sophie has an accident. Marie's search for a connection with her lost friend is touching. The men she meets along the way are funny, conniving and lovable all at the same time. A hidden gem in my opinion.
Marie and Sophie work the fishing boats, going from one job to another. They get paid and move into a Scottish hotel for a few weeks R&R before getting back to work. When Marie is approached by well off land owner Robert with the offer of money if she has a baby with his son (who's own wife is unable to conceive). After much to-ing and fro-ing Marie agrees to do it and gets pregnant. However when Sophie dies, Marie is left alone and changes her mind and goes looking for help.Marie's dream is of family and a nice home, a dream that seems far off with her wild lifestyle of going from port to port with her friend Sophie working the boats for enough money to hold them until the next job. This film appears to lack focus because it makes you think it will be an emotionally story focused on the baby, whereas really Marie is the focus and her baby is only one of the things that happen to her. In this regard the film does tend to wander, replacing emotional events with actual ones, meaning that the film feels like it is just going somewhere for the sake of going somewhere. It still has emotional involvement because Marie is a good focus but her life events over 9 months just seem too far fetched and unlikely in comparison to the story I expected from the first 20 minutes.A big reason it works is the performance of Hjejle; she has a very difficult character and, while she doesn't manage to make it totally real, she does enough to engage the audience in her story. Henderson is OK but has a strange character that the script just moves around as it required. The support cast of Scottish actors are quite enjoyable including faces such as the ever-present Cosmo as well as Gary Lewis and McBurney. Gallagher does reasonably well but is secondary to the film in terms of focus, also she doesn't have enough to work with to really distinguish her from some of her other `rough Irish lass' performances.Overall this is an interesting film thanks mostly to a performance by Hjejle that holds the material together better than it deserves. It doesn't have a great heart to it and wanders too far at times in terms of events but it is still worth seeing despite never really being totally convincing.
I didnt expect much but was pleasantly surprised by this offering. An unusual film but keeps you interested right up to the end which has a most unexpected twist. Always good to see Helen Baxendale, however, she really isn't in the film that much........
This movie was quite entertaining, although it's not nearly as good as Mifune (also starring Iben Hjejle). It's a modern-day fairytale, where our Princess is the danish woman, Marie Nielsen. She and her Irish friend, Sophie lead a carefree life. Their lives consist of an endless line of parties with men and booze!One day, Marie gets offered a chance to become a surrogate mother for a very wealthy couple and she eventually accepts.Suddenly, Marie's life changes dramatically - and the events that follow will test her willpower, amongst other things.All in all a charming little tale with superb acting, especially by Iben Hjejle (High Fidelity) as Marie, Bronagh Gallagher (The Commitments) as Sophie, and the charming Martin Henderson (The Ring, Windtalkers) as Ian.