THE STORY – An extraterrestrial visitor upends the lives of two elderly brothers in northern Sweden.
THE CAST – Rolf Lassgård, Lennart Jähkel & Kiran Shah
THE TEAM – Lars Vega (Director/Writer) & Theodor Österberg (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
Perhaps describing a film as a “Swedish sci-fi comedy from a first-time director” is not precisely its best endorsement. Indeed, only at TIFF can such words be uttered, a festival with a penchant for giving space to first time directors – a worthy pursuit that nonetheless often leads to utterly disastrous results. Not so, however, with “Arne Goes to Space,” a…well, Swedish sci-fi comedy from a first-time director (Lars Vega) that just had its World Premiere in Toronto. The premise is simple: two diametrically opposed elderly brothers live in quiet isolation in a northern, dreary Swedish province. They hack at wood and eat quiet meals together and have a handful of interactions. The two are very different. Arne (Lennart Jähkel) is always cheerful, smiling, or content. His younger brother Stefan (Rolf Lassgård, the film’s true protagonist) is crotchety, curmudgeonly, and always acerbic. Little escapes his contempt or scorn, and there are perhaps one too many anti-gay slurs. Moreover, and to be sure, this is a very familiar setup for a dry-wit, sarcasm-infused comedy. But, soon after the short exposition, “Arne Goes to Space” reveals itself as something a little more eclectic.
A small crash in the forest, a stones throw away from Arne and Stefan yields a diminutive extraterrestrial somewhat reminiscent of Yoda meets E.T. What happens next forms the central gig of the movie – no one is fazed or particularly interested in this visitor’s arrival, instead treating him like he has been there all along. And you thought humanity’s reaction to knowing aliens exist in Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” was absurd! The brothers react in kind. Arne is welcoming and preoccupied with the visitor. Stefan is annoyed, insulting his diminutive and odd appearance and decrying him as a freeloader good- for-nothing. All of this may sound silly enough, but when a worrisome medical diagnosis arrives in Arne’s mailbox, we find out what “Arne Goes to Space” is really about. The alien is interested in understanding the planet and eventually asks the probing questions needed for Vega’s screenplay to reveal its true colors. His is a message about community, brotherly love, and companionship, the meaning of aging in place, the dignity of work, and the contradictory values that sometimes define rural cultures. In the process, he makes Stefan the far more enigmatic, interesting, and lovable character. This, too, may be as you expect, but that does not mean the approach is any less effective. Vega has a genuine appreciation for whatever is left as part of the beauty of humanity, and his actors – including the Hollywood veteran Kiran Shah as the alien – do as well, even the seemingly moody Stefan.
Everything about “Arne Goes to Space” is small, at least at first glance. The music is simple, like Northern Swedish folk songs. The cinematography, too, is simple but effective – the landscape is somber and gray, even if it is beautiful. The sets are also unassuming, as this is a small rural community, after all. The actors are all unknown to most people and will likely will remain so. The biggest thing in the film, then, is its heart. Vega thinks that humans are still good deep inside, and that we have something worthy to offer. The alien is there to understand us at our most basic and fundamental, not to engage in any sort of galactic politicking. In that journey – which is really Vega’s, not the out-of-this-world visitor’s – he looks quietly and closely at what is really
animating the humans in this title. His conclusion – that they are worth saving because they still have a heart – may sound cheesy,
but its unquestionably genuine.
Some may say that Vega’s thesis is limited to the moral values of small town communities, that he would scorn ascribing similar values to more cosmopolitan societies. But, as noted, Vega’s film is not as small as it seems on the surface, so neither are his ambitions. To have, then, a believable message that humanity is still worth saving, delivered in such an unexpected and genuinely entertaining way (“Arne Goes to Space” never loses its comedic rhythm) is as alien in Hollywood of late as the extraterrestrial in this film, making it a wholly worthwhile endeavor. For once, “bravo” to the TIFF Discoveries series.
Ultimately, “Arne Goes to Space” pulls off a trick far more difficult than its modest construction suggests: it makes sentiment feel earned rather than imposed. Vega’s film is funny without straining for laughs, moving without wallowing in tragedy, and strange without allowing its extraterrestrial conceit to overshadow the recognizably and slightly sad human story at its center. That balance is no small achievement. In a festival landscape crowded with louder, slicker, and supposedly more important films, this peculiar little Swedish comedy may prove among the easiest to dismiss – and among the hardest to forget.
