Swede And Lowdown

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2010)

This one takes its own sweet time getting round to the main event and then, for good measure, throws in an extra reel after the denouement. It doesn't seem to care whether or not the audience can or will relate to the two protagonists, neither exactly bursting with charisma, charm or even presence and even without the body piercings the female lead would be hard to fancy unless you'd been on an uninhabited island for a quarter of a century. Not that either is a bad actor, indeed the whole cast is well up to snuff with at least one - Sven-Bertil Taube - being familiar via his films with Bergman. The mystery isn't really much of a mystery and anyone reasonably au fait with the genre will be one jump ahead of the two sleuths from the third or fourth reel. What it does have, apart from fine acting, is atmosphere and striking photography. I'm pleased to have seen it but not overwhelmed.