Four Shades of Brown (2004)

Admirable film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I didn't know what to expect from this hugely popular (and hilarious) Swedish comedy & satire team, as they released their first feature film. More broad satire? Well, we do get four contemporary, exceptionally memorable tales of family pains, generation gaps and fatherhood, in particular. But it's drama, thankfully, and what drama! Epic in its scope, as each episode is from carefully picked, geographically different parts of Sweden. But each story could seriously carry a whole movie, if expanded separately.It's dark, twisted, harrowing, yet massively entertaining and breathtakingly executed. Script, acting and cinematography are absolute world class, as three hours seem to get by in a blink! It's four shades of mastery, and easily one of the best films in the nations' cinema history. It's Sweden's answer to "Short cuts" or "Magnolia", if you like, and instantly on par with those!9 out of 10 from Ozjeppe

During the making of this movie I once caught a statement on television about it. Something like: "Is Killinggänget now taking off Nazism?"So, my comprehension of this movie, was from the beginning to get a notion of Nazism. When recently seeing this movie in the TV-version I had this filter before me and it wasn't difficult to see this.Strangely enough I haven't met this way of interpreting the film ever since I first heard it.These are the things I found in "Four shades of brown". In all four of the stories the lack of empathy leads to disaster:1. The crematory-worker shows no realistic empathy to the dead animals or to those who had to say goodbye to them. In the crematory-room in dealing with death and fire it's almost like a cheerful game to him. The seriousness of death and fire is not emphasized by the father and his boy accordingly, in ignorance pushes a button that leads to the disaster that injures his father severely.Possible lesson: The importance of showing the young adequate emotions. When they grow up they need to know what behavior leads to disaster and what emotions lead to good.2.The magician maneuvers his wife like an invisible puppeteer. Just when she thinks she has begun to cut off the strings to the masters hand, reaching for personality, integrity and joy, he pulls hard and she is back in desolation and despair.Their son has tried to revolt in creating his own life with perfection and "good" taste in opposite to his parents "bad" taste. The real problem he is carrying within is far from comprehensible to him: His fathers behavior passes on when suffocating his own wife in his spotless environment.Possible lesson: Oppression breeds bondage.3.The father who was abused as a child passes on sadism to his children when he cheats them on their inheritance. He robs them of their childhood and in the end even of their inheritance.Possible lesson: When no love given you cannot give any.4.The fathers abuse of his daughter creates in her a ruthless revenger with sadistic aggression. Here the ice cold Nazi-sadism becomes very obvious in physical violence. It gives a possible background and a somewhat plausible explanation to the actions of young "scin-head"-nazists behavior when oppressing others. Possible lesson? : Can Nazism take birth in a pervert home?Can the hideous consequence of ignoring empathy in family life, in the long run, be that room is given to sadistic Nazism ?Very seldom does a movie contains so much. It reveals little by little as I meditate on it. I consider it brilliantly "painted" and the actors are superb. Especially the nice-seeming bloke played by Ulf Brunnberg that turns out to be the worst of all..

Four shades of brown kept my attention for three hours which at least makes it a pretty good movie.The movie is four independent but related stories told in parallel. In my view the common theme is fatherhood and how lack of empathy can ruin the lives of your family members.The film does an excellent job in unfolding the minds of what at first glance seems to be admirable persons (the four fathers). The revealing truth is that they really are more or less perverted by their past, a fact they all seem to suppress and/or be unaware of.However the film merely illustrates this dilemma, and doesn't teach us anything new. It dares not go any deeper when depth is needed, and could therefore be regarded as shallow profiting on strong emotions. It is also uneven in the acting and story. This could all be forgiven because of some great acting, and what seems to be an honest intent with the movie.In all it's a pretty good movie that deserves a wide audience.

This is a very hard film to understand. It is four stories in one movie. The Killinggänget have made something very interesting for the viewers. The main characters are the famous, in Sweden that is, Robert Gustafsson, Johan Rehborg and Henrik Schyffert. They all come and go as different characters in the four different stories.First story: A hotel owner and his wife get visited by his parents. The parents, or the mother, bring a mystic man. The mystic man also brings a present to the owner and the wife. It is a wooden doll. Does the wooden doll have something to do with the pain and suffering?Second story: One couple, one son. The son has problems in school and fails in three subjects. The father tries to stimulate his son by taking him to his work. The father works at a crematorium for animals. He shows the son the full procedure. Accidentally the son turns on the fire in the oven and burns his father bad.Third story: An old man, died 43 minutes ago, tells a story from the dead. He has three sons that want his money. Who will get what and what will they get?Fourth story: The cooking club. Four people and one `psychiatrist' meets and talks about their miserable lives.