Niklas Pivic This is a plethora of bad. There are so many bad things about this, apart from the fact that Rapace and Novotny's abilities should be far better utilised.A midsummer's party in the Swedish archipelago, seemingly set in the 1950s; intrigue is everywhere, despite there being a handful of characters there. Nothing bad about this, but where it has been handled subtly in the past - e.g. Woody Allen's "Match Point" - this is a study in treating the viewer as infinitely stupid. Sexual "innuendo" is continuous, and constantly overstated so blatantly that you'd think sexuality was just discovered and has never been used in film before.You really don't care about the characters. Who lives, who dies - who cares?Apart from that, the film *glows*. That's not symbolism; there's an abysmal filter over the film which makes every bit of light look like it's glowing. Incredibly irritating.All in all: avoid, by Jove, and never look back.

l_rawjalaurence Set on a remote island in the late Fifties, DEATH OF A LOVED ONE has strong echoes of Agatha Christie: at one point a character likens the situation to that of TEN LITTLE INDIANS. A group of people are isolated on the island, with no means of communication with the mainland except by boat - and the boat has been put out of action. Hence they have to stay together in a pressure-cooker situation where one of them is a murderer.Unlike Christie, however, Birger Larsen's production has at least two investigators - Police Inspector Christer (Ola Rapace), a thirtysomething man with a yen for young women; and Puck (Tuva Novotny), a university lecturer writing her thesis on murderers in literature. Her boyfriend Eje (Linus Wahlgren) is likewise an academic, only his subject is medieval architecture. Together they solve the mystery of the serial killer: Christer does all the spade-work, but it is Puck who unearths the final piece of the jigsaw so that the murderer can be identified.The atmosphere on the island is like a pressure-cooker, with every character having a motive for murder. Most of them have either been in love with one another; some are conducting affairs clandestinely; others are more open in their sexualities. Rutger (Gustaf Hammarsten) is especially nervous, as he realizes to his cost that his complicated love life has been brought out into the open. His current wife Ann (Suzanna Dilber) tries to blot out the truth through housework, but finds the mental effort too much for her. Lil (Ida Engvoll) bears more than a passing resemblance to Marilyn Monroe; she adopts a more liberal approach to her relationships. Such characterizations help to contribute to an episode that keeps us guessing right until the end.The Fifties recreations are historically exact - complete with big cars, flowing skirts and perpetual smoking - but they seem almost too perfect, creating a chocolate-box world whose inhabitants' behavior is morally doubtful, to say the least. Perhaps director Larsen wanted to emphasize this contrast, in a manner similar to that of the British Miss Marple adaptations. DEATH OF A LOVED ONE unfolds at a slow pace, the action kept deliberately low-key until the denouements. In terms of content and form, it seems especially familiar for a televised whodunit, but I am convinced that the series has potential for further development. I look forward to the next episode.

Tweekums This, the first of six stories featuring amateur detective Puck Ekstedt, opens with a colleague inviting her to join him and a group of friends to celebrate midsummer at his house on a remote island. Everybody seems to be having fun until two more women turn up uninvited. Tempers raise, threats are made and then Puck finds one of them dead in the woods. She tells one of the Eji, who she is apparently in a relationship with, and they return to the mainland and he contacts a friend who is a policeman. The three of them return to the island but when they get there, there is no sign of the dead woman! The others believe that she left the island but each seems to think somebody else took her. When the boat breaks down there is no way to contact the mainland and another member of the group is killed, Puck and policeman Christer Wijk will have to solve the crimes alone.After Scandinavian mysteries like 'Wallander', 'The Bridge' and 'The Killing' this fifties-set series seems surprisingly bright in comparison. It also feels lighter in town; one of the characters even remarks that it is getting like Agatha Christie's 'Ten Little Indians'… and I'm sure many viewers will have though the same when the group headed off to a remote island with no telephone contact to the mainland. As is the way with such mysteries there were plenty of suspects and each of them seems to have a motive. I was a little surprised at just how much the policeman figured out; it made a change from a story where he is just there to provide theories that can be proved wrong by the heroine… although in the final scene where the killer is revealed that did happen. The acting was fairly solid although I did have to rely on the English subtitles to understand what was being said. Overall this was a decent first story in the series; it will be interesting to see how the rest of the series goes.

Roland Jakobsson (rolandddd) Kicking off a new Swedish crime series based on Maria Lang's crime novels," Mördaren Ljuger inte ensam" was released in cinemas this spring. The main character Puck, played by Tuva Novotny, is invited to celebrate midsummer on a remote island. While initially reluctant, upon hearing that good-looking charmer Einar (Linus Wahlgren) will be present she agrees. The party guests all seem to be emotionally involved with one another and before long a killer starts to pick them off one by one.Personally I couldn't believe another Swedish "killer on a remote island" would be released so soon after last year's Maria Wern thriller "Inte ens det förflutna". Both movies are about people traveling to remote islands to celebrate an occasion, but their boats break down and therefore there is no escape from the killer picking them off one by one. Even more strangely, actor Fanny Risberg stars in both movies, so I really wonder about the small world of Swedish cinema and its obvious lack of creativity and new ideas.On the brighter side, the movie looks really good, the 50s settings look realistic and the camera-work and directing are of some quality. The actors are experienced well-known names who know how to do a good job, and I really liked watching relative unknown Ida Engvoll outshining many more experienced actors with her impressive performance as Lil. On the other hand, I found Tuva Novotny's Puck rather bland as a character, she doesn't really say or do much and therefore is more of an observer than a lead character, unfortunately. The plot keeps you guessing most of the way through the movie, and I found myself thinking I had solved the mystery quite a few times before (of course) being proved wrong. I was quite disappointed at the anticlimactic ending though, which of course solves the mystery, but without any excitement or action. Overall, a decent first film of the series, but not on par with the likes of Wallander or Johan Falk just yet.