Evil/Ondskan (2003) - Håfström impresses with forceful Guillou adaptation

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+ Best Period Movie of the Year + Best Swedish Movie of the Year

 

A fresh-faced young man in a boarding school uniform against a clouded sky makes up this poster for Mikael Håfström's Evil

Erik Ponti is a young violent thug, made so by his tyrannical, abusive step-father, who in 1958 sends him off to a boarding school for sons of Sweden's elite, where violence also plays a central role.

 

Evil is written by Hans Gunnarsson (King of Ping Pong/Ping-Pongkingen (2008)), Klas Östergren (Gentlemen (2014)) and great Swedish filmmaker, co-writer/director Mikael Håfström (Vendetta (1995)). It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1981 semi-autobiographical bestseller by Jan Guillou (The Road to Jerusalem/Vägen till Jerusalem (1998)). The English title is a literal translation of the original Swedish title.

The scenes of violence are staged with convincing power, and the acting performances, - with an intense, dogged Andreas Wilson (The Italian Key (2011)) in front as Erik, - are uniformly good in this well-made film of Guillou's school-time recollections, fantasies and traumas.

Evil has a fine width to its narrative, is a splendid production and edited to perfection. A compelling and exciting film.

 

Related posts:

 

Mikael Håfström: 1408 (2007) or, The Haunted Hotel Room

Derailed (2005) - Håfström's pointless romance thriller 

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

 

 

Watch a short clip from the film here

 

Cost: 20-22 mil. SEK, (different reports), approximately 1.92-2.11 mil. $

Box office: Approximately 7.48 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.54-3.89 times its cost)

[Evil premiered 16 May (Cannes Film Festival, out of competition) and runs 113 minutes. The adaptation had been envisioned as a TV-series, but Håfström convinced the producers to allow him to make it as a film. Shooting took place in 30 days from October - November 2002 in Stockholm. The film opened #102 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it did not achieve a higher position although it widened to 4 theaters, grossing 15k $ (0.2 % of the total gross). The film was a huge hit in Sweden, where it sold 959,223 tickets, coming to approximately 6.45 mil. $ (86.2 %). It sold 50,776 tickets in Denmark, its 2nd biggest market, coming to approximately 510k $ (6.8 %). The 3rd biggest market was Norway with 280k $ (3.7 %). The film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, lost to The Barbarian Invasions. It won 3/7 Guldbagge nominations (Sweden's Oscar), among other honors. Håfström returned with Drowning Ghost/Strandvaskaren (2004). Wilson returned in Animal (2005). Evil is fresh at 68 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Evil?

Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation/Hamilton: I Nationens Intresse (2012) - Flawed spy hogwash

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Mikael Persbrandt looks intensely at us in a stately suit on the poster for Katrine Windfeld's Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation

Hamilton, a deadly spy-weapon of the Swedish state, survives a major arm's deal gone haywire in Uzbekistan and must soon thereafter rescue a Swedish weapon's technician in Africa.

Hamilton is a technically well-oiled adaptation of Swede Jan Guillou's (Coq Rouge - The Story of a Swedish Spy/Coq Rouge (1986)) same-titled 1988 novel, the third of his 13 novels of spy Hamilton. Stefan Thunberg (False Trail/Jägerne 2 (2011)) adapted the novel and Dane Kathrine Windfeld (The Escape/Flugten (2009)), who passed away tragically young earlier this year, directed the film.
The visuals and especially the fight scenes are molded after the Bourne movies (2002; '04; '07; '12), and Hamilton's stunt coordinator Cedric Proust (In the Valley of Elah (2007)) actually worked on the stunts of The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).
But the angle taken on the novel is fundamentally flawed here: Hamilton should have been revived ('he' has been adapted before as Harold Zwart's Commander Hamilton (1998) and the TV-miniseries Hamilton (2001)) as a period film, set in the time it was written for, or left alone. - The world has changed a lot since the books.
The fact SPOILER that Hamilton to a large degree takes place in Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan and so on, but that the villains are all sinister, cynical Americans are the typically Swedish, politically correct choice. Hamilton is a film that steals American formalism and style in order to make an anti-American, nationalistically Swedish serving of genderless nonsense. A disappointing film.

Related posts:

2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Cost: Estimated 45 mil. SEK. ~ 5.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[A lot of the film was shot in Jordan, where it was also screened at the Swedish diplomatic mission. Hamilton became the #1 Swedish movie in Sweden of the year with 512k admissions. - Good but not spectacular: This would only generate around 8 mil. SEK, and so the film can surely be counted as a flop of some kind. 2012 was the biggest cinema-year in Sweden in 25 years in terms of admissions, (18.4 mil. ~ 281 mil. $), but the support for Swedish films shown by the audiences are still way under for instance the neighboring Danish audiences' enthusiasm for Danish films. Hamilton was the only Swedish movie in the top 10, at #6. It was sold to "more than ten foreign markets." The film is the first of a proposed trilogy with Agent Hamilton: But Not If It Concerns Your Daughter/Hamilton: Men Inte Om Det Gäller Din Dotter (2012) being the second film. The third is still not announced and may well never happen. Hamilton doesn't have a Rotten Tomatoes score, but it does have a 6.3 user's average, based on 6.201 clicks on IMDb.]

What do you think of Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation?
If you've seen the sequel, how does it rate in comparison?