Review: Stormen

Stormen is the title of this autumn’s big Swedish Netflix comedy. We are talking about an ensemble consisting of several of the biggest names on the Swedish film map. It arrived as a request in my inbox as a total surprise. I hadn’t heard of the film before, or I had suppressed it. The images I saw beforehand immediately brought to mind a Swedish costume drama with Agatha Christie-vibes, but what is it really?

Netflix summarizes the plot as follows: Filip is turning 45 and has invited his closest friends to dinner at the lavish estate he and his wife recently bought in northern Sweden. What they don’t know is that a terrible storm is on its way and that they will be stuck together. Their polished facades crumble, and an unfiltered breakdown begins. As panic starts to creep in and they all realize the gravity of the situation, the estate begins to feel smaller and smaller, secrets leak out, and unexpected emotions take shape.

Josephine Bornebusch is responsible for both the script and direction. We are talking about a real success story here. Bornebusch has been in everything from Rederiet and Vingar av glas to Hundtricket and Welcome To Sweden. She is most famous, however, as Mickan in Solsidan, a series she also directed a few episodes of. I really took notice of her with Älska mig, a completely fantastic series that she wrote, directed, and starred in. In recent years, she has also built a career abroad, most recently as the director of the series Vladimir starring Rachel Weisz, among others. She also directed three episodes of the superb and superbly unsettling Baby Reindeer. The latest film she wrote and directed was Släpp taget, a film that took my breath away. I was expecting a comedy (I don’t remember why, maybe I had seen a clip that was comedy-oriented or the trailer was angled that way?) but got a truly beautiful, emotional, and smart cry-fest. Stormen, on the other hand, is something completely different. More on that soon.

Moving on to the cast list. Because here, they have chosen to go all out for the maximum experience. Bornebusch herself plays Kina, married to Filip Berg’s Ossi, who is one of the film’s main characters. In other roles, we see Gustaf Skarsgård as the host Filip, Aliette Opheim as his wife Caroline, Jonas Karlsson with lipstick and truly creepy dental veneers, Johan Rheborg, Christopher Wagelin, Sara Shirpey, Gizem Erdogan, Henrik Dorsin, Nils Wetterholm and Nicole Levin. It is star-studded to the point where you wonder how everyone will find space before the oxygen in the room runs out. Not at all. It’s always exciting when you manage to gather so many names in one and the same film. Almost as exciting as when you dare to go the opposite way and rely more on unknown names. But a lineup like this belongs, in some sense, to the ensemble mindset. And in that way, it feels a bit like taking a seat in a theater to witness a spectacle.

But. Tone and all. What kind of film is Stormen really? I mentioned at the start that I got Agatha Christie vibes based on images. And the truth is, I neither saw the trailer nor read up on the plot, but sat down expectantly unaware for this preview. And no. Stormen is not a murder mystery, although I can reveal without any spoilers that it gets—a little—bloody in a couple of places. Stormen is, on the contrary, a comedy of errors, which however borrows some attributes from something that could have developed into a feature-film Cluedo—we gather a motley crew in one place. It starts as a party, but suddenly the storm hits for real and they cannot leave the estate. A classic scenario and something of a nightmare in itself for a guy who prefers to withdraw to recharge his batteries and write books after social interaction. I like this type of film. It can be both farcical and psychologically interesting when people are pressured and forced closer together and secrets and old feelings bubble up to the surface.

So. How does it hold up? Stormen is, as mentioned, a comedy, and that is a difficult genre. I love the comedy genre, but it is very rare that it actually works fully. Some jokes work superbly on paper but don’t hit home at all when they are staged or spoken. It’s about everything from actual lines and direction to delivery and editing. I can start by saying as much as Stormen is entertaining. At least at first. I started watching it during a lunch at home when I actually only intended to get through the first fifteen minutes before returning to an ongoing script project. It ends with me watching the first half. Partly because I have no idea what I’ve actually started, and partly because both the introduction of characters and the plot are captivating. I’m drawn into it and find it entertaining, even if not much more than that. The comic elements work okay, but some feel forced. The spaced-out chef Petter is funny, and you quickly realize he will be responsible for at least a certain percentage of all mishaps.

I sit down to watch the second half late in the evening with a certain hope. I have actually been looking forward to finishing Stormen which, despite some reservations, feels like it could, excuse the choice of words, go completely off the rails and offer a truly crazy final half. And it does. But not entirely successfully. As is often the case with Netflix productions, Stormen feels at times like a rushed job. I get the feeling they were in too much of a hurry with both the script and filming and didn’t have time to stop and polish, or ask themselves, “Is this actually funny?”. As if Bornebusch, who is usually very much on point with both comedic elements and emotions (Älska mig, again, a completely magnificent series that is both emotional and at times damn funny), was asked and squeezed this film into an already very tight schedule. Because there is a lot that doesn’t work. It’s entertaining, again, but mostly for the reason that you don’t know where it’s headed. And yes. Petter is responsible for a large part of things flipping out. Also a fun idea, but it doesn’t work all the way. And here is the big problem: many of the comedic elements don’t land. There is something about the timing and delivery that jars. Dorsin’s taxi driver is responsible for much of what is actually somewhat funny, mostly because he plays an Ove Sundberg-esque incredibly annoying character that you love to hate, and it is funny that he happens to hurt himself all the time, like a modern Papphammar. I also chuckle when Ossi is going for a dog walk.

The next thing is the characters themselves. Each one intended to be more charismatic than the next. It’s fun on paper, but my perhaps biggest objection is that the bickering starts immediately. Before they have been locked in. It says in the description that Filip has gathered his closest friends – but I never get the feeling that any of those summoned are friends for real. On the contrary, it feels like almost everyone actually loathes each other. I understand that this is partly the intention, but for me, it becomes a bit hard to buy the concept entirely. I would have liked to see friction between some and have it slowly brought to the surface, but in Stormen it feels like too much is thrown onto the table immediately. The characters and their relationships simply feel ill-conceived and grossly simplified. Furthermore, they are far too superficially described for one to get any direct feeling for anyone. Attention-seeking Ninni for example, who has tried to seduce her husband since the film’s opening minutes, could have been something really funny—and tragic. Unfortunately, it’s fumbled away, and the antics lean more towards slapstick, just like much else. Gustaf Skarsgård is perhaps responsible for the most composed and interesting character. He stands out a bit and lifts it at times. The scene in the sauna is somewhat funny, with potential to be really funny. There is also nothing that stands out regarding the actors’ performances besides Skarsgård. Perhaps because of the too-thin characters. And the script.

Now I must also address a recurring problem with Swedish productions: the sound mix. I almost always turn on subtitles even for Swedish films because the dialogue tends to be so damn low that many lines turn into mumbling. It’s slightly better here, at least if you have the volume relatively high, but it’s a trade-off, because the music is at an annoyingly high level and goes off like a gunshot to the eardrums as soon as something comical happens. It is a recurring element, especially during the second half. Because here, things obviously go south. The complications are many. The level of irritation is high. Secrets are revealed. But. It doesn’t become particularly funny. A few jokes land, others definitely do not. The music blares on, someone screams, another has a breakdown and yells and pours gasoline in the corridor. It becomes mostly silly, stressed, and extremely loud. At times, even outright annoying.

In summary, there is far too much in Stormen that doesn’t work. It’s a shame. Because we have the ingredients: talented, experienced actors, a screenwriter and director who is really on point, a good idea, and the potential for a truly funny film. It makes me think of that time when I had spent a lot of time putting together the batter for what was, for me, an advanced dish, but the bottom of the tin gave way and everything was dropped on the floor. On the other hand, I think they had a really fun time filming.