No Swedish Delight

Rating: 4/10 (10 July 2019)

GRADE: C-
THIS FILM IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
IN BRIEF: Artfully made but absurd in its narrative, this psychological thriller about pagan rituals and bad romance wears one out. The Swedes should sue.
JIM'S REVIEW: Ari Aster's psychological horror thriller, Midsommar, is this talented director's sophomore film, his second full-length feature, but this time, he allows his excesses to get the better of him. The director in him is still very astute and resourceful, piling on impressive surreal images and a purposeful sense of dread. However, the writer in him is in need of major guidance. His film is all set-up and no pay-off.
It's deja vu, horror redux and repackaged. The director's screenplay rips off other movies from the horror genre and ends up disappointing in comparison. His previous film, Hereditary, had a similar effect, but that film was at least original and compelling. This one, relies too heavily on obvious troves from Hostel (students being maimed and tortured on a student trip), The Stepford Wives (a community that is not what it appears to be), The Village and Get Out (a community of followers with a hidden agenda), Rosemary's Baby (a coven of evil), Suspiria (another coven of evil with supernatural forces), and especially The Wicker Man (yet another coven of evil with supernatural forces and pagan rituals). Add to this rehash, lots of blood and gore and it makes for a rather unpleasant, if tension-filled, moviegoing experience.
Not that all films need to be strictly entertaining and upbeat, but Mr. Asher's obsesses with slasher elements and shock value to make his point about the hazards of sustaining a dysfunctional relationship. His story involves a young couple named Christian (a less-than-subtle name) and Dani. a woman with some bouts of deep mental anguish), who are trying to salvage their romance...at least Dani is. Christian is ready to call it quits and go off on a European vacation with his buds, Mark and Josh, to a idyllic commune with their Swedish friend Pelle to attend a 90 year midsummer celebration. Christian mistakingly invites his soon-to-be ex to join them. Beware a woman scorned!
This revenge fantasy clocks in at nearly two and a half hours and Mr. Aster takes his time to establish his stock characters and soak up the atmosphere. (A pre-credit prologue gives a backstory to one of the central characters, but it really is not all that necessary to the film's plot.) While suspense is a mainstay, the script is in dire need of rewrites, some judicious editing, and, most importantly, clarity. One wonders why these lambs to the slaughter are so dense that they are incapable of catching any clues to their dangerous journey from the outset. (Just looking at the artwork on the walls is more than a hint at the danger than is their destiny.) Their non-plussed reactions after a particularly grisly ritual makes no sense at all. (All book sense and no common sense, as my father would have called it.) Sex, youthful folly, and hallucinatory drugs can only justify so much for the lack of logic and the willingness to stay there.
What the film has at its core is a strong performance by Florence Pugh as Dani. (The director was lucky to have that lightning strike twice, as his previous film debut had a riveting lead performance by Toni Collette as well.) Ms. Puhl takes on this emotional role with a self-assured presence. She shows her characters inherent flaws, vulnerability, and her unhinged nature. Jack Reynor as her handsome boyfriend is an interesting foil and depicts a self-centered millennial quite accurately. As his friends, William Jackson Harper, Vihelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter make the most of their underwritten roles of college intellectual. laid-back foreign graduate student, and sex-driven jock, disrespectfully.
Visually, the film is a stunner. Pawel Pogorzelski's photography heightens the eerie uncertainty as he contrasts the brightly-lit countryside with the darker goings-on. (Loved the 360 degree angled road trip, aerial shots, and the fluidity and multiple movements of flora during the drug-induced sessions.) Along with Andrea Flesch's peasant tribal costumes with their intricate embroidery and Bobby Krlic's electronic folk-tinged atonal musical score, the look of the film resembles a pretty utopia that goes askew rather quickly.
Mr. Aster's vision of a bizarre world keeps one's attention fixed at the atmospheric details and foregone omens, but his script that loses its way. The story becomes progressively absurd as more of the mystery is slowly revealed and the plot just leads to a very unsatisfying conclusion which caused more titters and groans than real fear and genuine scares from my movie audience.
Despite all of the artistry involved, Midsommar is half baked horror. Mr. Aster's film starts off very effectively as it follows the recipe for suspense but the far-fetched story has too many overripe moments and wallows in its own pretentiousness. It's well made schlock, served piping hot. Just not to my taste.