Illusive Tracks (2003)

I love this movie so much

Pretty Good

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

SPOILER WARNING. (Though not too much. Just enough!) This is an absolutely fantastic film that takes place on a train going from Stockholm to Berlin in Christmas time in the year 1945. It's a very unusual film, it's actually a THRILLER COMEDY! And the mix works very well. The film is hilarious and immensely entertaining! It stars some of Sweden's most amazing actors. Lena Nyman's playing an old lady with some dark secrets and Marie Göranzon plays the nun that can't stop swearing (!) after she gives up on her beliefs after a lot of hardships on the train journey. There is also a cheating couple trying to poison the man's wife that's also on the train. Gustaf Hammarsten (who is now known for playing Sasha Baron Cohen's assistant in the film "Brüno") plays the humble man who is trying to get to Berlin to "do some good" but can't seem to get in anything but trouble. Legendary actor Gösta Ekman does an absolutely amazing performance as an older gay man that caters to his lover who is totally unappreciative. This lover is gay just because he hates women! Here is a great clip, with English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLc85TLhSl4 . And not to mention Robert Gustafsson who is incredibly funny in as an injured man that gets in more and more accidents and is soon all covered in bandages but doesn't seem to mind his injuries at all... lol...The film is written and directed by Peter Dalle, another famous Swedish actor, and after making this film I consider him to be a genius! I also love the extra material on the DVD where he explains some of his choices behind the film, it's really a masterpiece! A must watch! And the Swedish DVD edition has English subtitles so anyone can understand.

Skenbart takes place in the 1940s, right after the second world war. Main character Gunnar (Gustav Hammarsten) quits his job to get a chance to "make a difference" in the bombed-out postwar Europe. He packs a book by his favourite philisopher, Ludwig Witgenstein, and embarks on a trip which will eventually prove Witgenstein's famous statement true: Nothing is what it seems.There are two main plots, and several subplots, to this film, which takes place on a train bound for Berlin. Writer/Director Peter Dalle (also playing the role as the conductor of the train) has assembled an impressive cast including swedish legends Lena Nyman, Gösta Ekman and Robert Gustafsson. Overall, the acting is excellent.Skenbart offers some rather twisted slapstick comedy combined with more subtle black humor (like the nun who loses her faith and starts cursing violently). It's like Killinggänget meets Peter Jackson (Braindead, Bad Taste) in Schindler's List. I laughed during most of the film, and when i woke up the next morning i laughed even more. An intelligent film for fans of Swedish comedy.

`Skenbart' is one of the funniest movies to not only to come from Peter Dalle but from the Swedish cinema industry itself. It is a movie made in black and white to get something of the atmosphere from the days before Christmas in December 1945, which it does very well. Almost the whole plot takes place on a train, non-stop to Berlin. On the train is a mix of homosexuals, nuns, deported refugees, murderers, alcoholics and the failure literature critic 'Gunnar' played by the, in Sweden, famous actor Gustav Hammarsten. The leading role 'Gunnar' is the type of person that, although his intentions are for the best, seems to drag everyone near him, in a extremely funny way, into disaster and to a living hell, especially for a from the Finnish war, homecoming, wounded soldier played by the extremely funny comedian Robert Gustafsson. On the train is also a doctor, who cheats on his wife, with his mistress. They have together planned to murder the doctors wife that is also travelling with the same train without any knowledge about her husbands intentions. Will the wife of the doctor elude the plans to murder her and will everyone else survive the unlucky fellow 'Gunnar'?

This solid black and white slapstick comedy with a dark (but hopelessly contrived) plot is a true crowd pleaser that will have you howling with laughter (as well as rolling your eyes with disbelief).It's the old psychopath on a train story but that is of no big importance as the thriller portion of the film almost seems to be merely a counterweight to the antics of the great comedian Robert Gustafsson. His hapless, nearly incurably optimistic soldier invokes both compassion and schadenfreude in a fashion that almost rivals Chevy Chase.The thing about the film that appealed to me the most, however, is that wedged between the improbable and the hilarious are the accurately portrayed everyday joys and nuisances of train travel. They add a most welcome sense of realism and recognition.This thriller comedy has admittedly borrowed most of its "suspense" from Hitchcock and should, in my opinion, only be watched for its comedy value (which is high indeed). Besides Gustafsson, Lars Amble's solid performance as a delightfully cynical misogynist is worth the price of admission alone.Heartily recommend.