Fucking Åmål, retitled Show Me Love for more sensitive markets such as the USA and the UK, is Swedish poet and novelist Lukas Moodysson's debut feature, and already the biggest Swedish film of all time. The film follows Agnes (Rebecca Liljeberg) who, even after 18 months in the provincial town of Åmål with her family, still has no friends, and Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) who is sick of the fact that by the time something is 'in' in 'fucking' Åmål, it is 'out' everywhere else, and is also keen to rid herself of her virginity.
Agnes is having a 16th birthday party and, for want of anything better to
do, Elin and her sister Jessica (Erica Carlson) turn up having made a bet
that Elin wouldn't dare to kiss Agnes who, it is rumoured, is a lesbian.
Elin manages to kiss Agnes and then disappears without realising that Agnes
has a crush on her.
The rest of the film centres less on Agnes' growing confidence in public
knowledge of her sexuality, than on the confusion within Elin on her
unexpected and reciprocal feelings for Agnes and whether to act on them or
not.
For a film that has enjoyed such critical and commercial success, Show Me
Love has been criticised in some quarters for a perceived shallowness - not
an unusual accusation for films that purport to deal with or portray youth.
What is so striking about the film however, is its realistic observation of
youths and their provincial boredom; Moodysson seems at times to be filming
the youths' parties and interactions with the skill of a wildlife
documentarist. He captures the chaos and thoughtlessness of teenage parties,
the cruelty and capriciousness of popularity contests, the gaps that rise up
between parents and their children and the fact that not all teenagers develop
and 'grow' and the intense despair of provincial boredom.
Moodysson also indicates that teenagers are not often that sophisticated in their tastes, provincial teenagers less so, nor are they usually that dextrous when trying
to make a point. As a result, the choice of 'I Want To Know
What Love Is' as the song to which the two girls kiss manages to ring true.
Moodysson also shows a delicately sure touch when portraying homophobia, in
one scene letting Oskar (Axel Widegren), Agnes' little brother, bring it to
his mother's initially liberal attention that his elder sister is apparently
a lesbian. The only scene that falls flat comes at the end where the girls
come out of the (water) closet, a scene conceived purely to allow weak puns
in reviews.
The director is helped throughout by a largely first-time cast, with
Liljeberg and Dahlström both excellent and, among the supporting cast,
Carlson and Mathias Rust (as the meathead with whom Elin tries to cement her
heterosexuality after she dreams of Agnes), give notably good performances.
Show Me Love, despite its bum note resolution (which it manages to recover from in the very last scene), is an enjoyable 90 minutes, at times
excruciatingly so, and comes strongly recommended.
