When Fredrik Backman’s bestselling novel A MAN CALLED OVE was turned into an international hit film, it seemed inevitable that another of the Swedish author’s bestsellers would adapted for the big screen. BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE (Britt-Marie Var Har) is a Swedish drama/comedy based on Backman’s bestseller of the same name, about a 63-year-old woman who takes a job as a youth soccer coach in a little town, even though she knows nothing about the sport. The success of A MAN CALLED OVE set a pretty high bar for this film. While BRITT-MARIE also focuses on a flinty older person, this is more modest stuff than that epic tale.
Britt-Marie (redoubtable Swedish star Pernilla August) is a 63-year-old housewife who likes everything tidy, organized and clean. She lives by the motto that a clean house says everything about you, and takes pride in keeping hers neat and polished. In voice-over, she tells us her sister Ingrid was always dreaming while Britt-Marie was always the practical one, with her feet firmly on the ground.
Armed with her to-do lists and cleaning products, the no-nonsense Britt-Marie has taken care of the house with military precision, while her husband Kent (Peter Haber) took care of making money. Kent travels a lot in his job but when at home, he spends his time obsessively watching soccer (or football, as it is called there). She thinks she and Kent have a system that has worked well for them for 40 years, until she discovers her husband is having an affair.
With no drama, practical Britt-Marie marches straight home, packs a bag and moves out. The next day, she goes to the local employment agency, to look for a job. There are very few open to a woman of her age, but one is temp work in a remote town named Borg, as a youth counselor. Oh yeah, she also has to serve as their soccer coach too. “Any experience in football?” the job counselor asks. “It feels like half my life has revolved around football,” Britt-Marie cryptically replies.
When Britt-Marie arrives by bus in tiny Borg, it is late at night. She lets herself into the graffiti-covered youth center and inside, the youth center is even worse, dingy and cluttered. “Chaos,” Britt-Marie mutters. Clearly she has quite a job ahead of her – and that is without the coaching part. Then she meets the kids who form the soccer team, when the ragtag bunch of racially-diverse preteens accidentally break a window as they practice in the field next to the youth center.
This fish-out-of-water tale is directed by actor-turned-director Tuva Novotny, her second feature film. Comparisons to A MAN CALLED OVE are inevitable, even though that film had a different director. A MAN CALLED OVE is a tale about a curmudgeonly man that begins in an unassuming manner but then takes off into unexpected directions, transforming it into a kind of epic adventure with a big heart, as it recapped this unassuming man’s astonishing, heartbreaking life. BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE has heart too but it is a more limited kind of story.
Part sports movie, part second-chance-at-life story, the film employs plenty of conventional elements from both genres, yet it manages to create warmth, thanks to its dry humor and some nice performances. Britt-Marie has no idea how to coach but the kids are so motivated that they almost drag her along, as they prepare for a big game against a neighboring town. She also does not care much for kids, or adults for that matter. However, after scoffing at the idea of this buttoned-down old lady as their new youth soccer coach, everyone pitches in to help Britt-Marie and she finds herself softening. This remote little Swedish town seems mostly populated by descendants of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, but film never directly comments on this, letting the story’s undercurrent about the economically-marginalize makes the point. While the kids try to prepare for the big game, Britt-Marie goes on a journey of self-discovery, tied to forgotten, buried dreams linked to her youth.
The film has little flashbacks to Britt-Marie’s youth but nowhere as elaborate as the flashbacks in A MAN CALLE OVE. Like everything else in this story, it is more practical and down-to-earth, like the character herself. The film does offer a little flight of fancy in charming animated sequences the run under the opening and closing credits.
The film is well-acted, with Pernilla August in particular giving her seemingly-inflexible character an unexpected kind of inner strength as well as that dry sense of humor that is often a signature of Scandinavian films. Britt-Marie starts out as an independent, take-charge type who needs no one, but she ends up as a warmer if less certain person, who discovers the value of friends. She opens her heart to her own dreams, even as she helps the kids reach for theirs.
The rest of the cast are also good, and add to the mix of dry humor and warm appeal,as they embrace this stranger. Memo (Mahmut Suvakci) plays Memo, a joke-cracking Middle Easterner who is the town’s jack-of-all-trades. Memo turns out to be very helpful and Britt-Marie gets more help from Memo’s employee Sami (Lance Ncube), who takes care of his younger brother and sister (who are on the soccer team), since their mom died. Britt-Marie forms a special bond with Sami’s sister Vega (Stella Oyoko Bengtsson), a girl who lives for soccer. More help for the team comes from Bank (Malin Levanon), the legally-blind daughter of the former coach, and local policeman Sven (Anders Mossling), who has a crush on Britt-Marie, adding a touch of romance.
Nothing wild happens in BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE but the film does take some unexpected turns and ends up in a satisfying place that is a bit different than what we expect.
BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE is a modest little drama/comedy, much like it’s central character, but like that character, it also warms the heart with its tale of following one’s dreams. BRITT-MARIE WAS HERE, in Swedish with English subtitles, opens Friday, Oct. 4, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac.
RATING: 2 1/2 out of 4 stars
