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Gunnar Rehlin:
Despite a predictable outcome, "The Guy in the Grave
Next Door" is a light love story that’s as charming and
appealing as its leading actors. Based on a local
bestseller, this new film from Kjell Sundvall is scoring
good business in Sweden, where it should end up among
the biggest local movies of the year. Foreign adventures
will be limited, though some festival exposure could
prove successful.
Desirée (Elisabet
Carlsson) is single, works as a librarian in a small
Swedish town and, when she isn’t working, spends time
with her female friends and reluctantly visits her
senile mother. She also visits the cemetery where her
husband, killed in an accident some years before, is
buried.
Benny (Michael Nyquist) is also single, and a farmer,
living at and taking care of the farm his deceased
parents left behind. His life consists of work,
socializing with the couple on the farm next door and
visiting his parents’ grave.
At the cemetery, Desirée
and Benny start eyeing each other but don’t know how to
make the first move. Still, they soon start dating and
end up between the sheets.
However, they’re different from each other in almost
every way. They don’t like the same kind of music; she
likes to keep her flat tidy, while he can be a slob; and
so on. Also, Desirée
has assumed that Benny is a non-intellectual, whereas in
reality, he turns out to have more depth than she could
ever have imagined.
In an early montage showing the differences between the
two, Sundvall makes it clear the potential lovers will
encounter obstacles, but will eventually end up
together. The predictability of the outcome doesn’t
matter, as the film’s charm and natural ease make the
ride to the final embrace both entertaining and amusing.
Nyquist is one of Sweden’s most reliable character
actors, and here he’s as good as always. The real find,
however, is Carlsson, a legit actor here making her
movie debut. Not a regular beauty, she has a smile that
sets the screen on fire, making it easy to understand
why Benny falls head over heels for her.
Peo Sandholm, bio.nu:
"The Man in the Grave Next Door" is a romantic comedy
based on the novel by Katarina Mazetti with the same
name. Desirée lives alone in a small town and works as a
librarian. She wants to move to Stockholm where life
seems more exciting. And she wants to stop being alone.
One day she makes eye contact with a man in a cemetery.
Director Kjell Sundvall and scriptwriter Sara Heldt have
chosen a simple and traditional storytelling technique
instead of a somewhat more exciting and daring road that
the book opened up opportunities for. I cannot help
wonder what another director could have created. In any
case, Sundvall and the actors succeed in getting the
psyche of the two personalities and the good humor in
the book.
Michael Nyqvist plays Benny who manages his farm on his
own after his parents have died. Benny dreams of finding
love. Desirée is also interested in love but she
would never dream of being interested in someone like
Benny. He is a farmer and eats sausage with bread for
lunch. An unlikely love story begins between two
completely different individuals. Traditional gender
roles are strengthened between the two when Benny
expects her to cook meatballs for him. There is a
certain conflict between an old and a new world, but
above all, a conflict between what is expected of one in
the choice of life partners and how the passion may turn
into prejudices.
Both Elisabet Carlsson and Michael Nyqvist make
brilliant interpretations. Elisabeth Carlsson has been
featured in TV shows, but this is her first feature
film. Michael Nyqvist participates this year in no less
than four feature films.
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