Call Girl, 2012.
Directed by Mikael Marcimain.
Starring Sofia Karemyr, Simon J. Berger, Josefin Asplund, Pernilla August and Anders Beckman.
SYNOPSIS:
A young girl is recruited from the bottom rung of society into a ruthless world where power can get you anything.
Sweden has exported a number of excellent films in recent years. Most notably among these were Let the Right One In and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adaptation (and subsequent sequels). They’ve both received the Hollywood remake treatment since of course. With that in mind the prospect of reviewing another film from the home of Abba, meatballs and let’s face it, most impressively of all, Dolph Lundgren, seemed like a winner.
Call Girl, set in 1970’s Sweden, tells the story of troubled young teenage girl, Iris. Her mother is unable to control her so Iris lives in care institutions, but struggling to fit in where-ever she goes, ends up moving from home to home. Soon she finds herself in the underbelly of prostitution. She’s naïve but the attention and the money keep her coming back for more, alongside her (similarly troubled) friend Sonja. Taken under the wing of a madam, Dagmar Glans, the girls (both underage) could be the missing piece of the jigsaw that the police need to the madam, as well as some of her high profile and corrupt clients to justice.
The film is often an interesting insight into Sweden at that time. The story unfolds from the side of Iris (Sofia Karemyr), being introduced into a world where initially she feels as if she belongs. She naively falls into it but it fascinates her. Alongside this, moralistic police officer John (Simon J. Berger) spends many a waking minute trying to bring to justice all these people with no support. His superiors, and the political heavyweights who control them, just want him to leave it alone, particularly with a general election coming up and the possibility of the legal age of consent being lowered.
Call Girl looks great. It’s wonderfully shot. It’s stylish but naturalistic at the same time. 1970’s Sweden is brought vividly to life. Scenes are allowed to play out without intrusion from erratic editing, or this idea that many Hollywood films have these days that their audience have low attention spans. The score is great too, evoking the great Tangerine Dream scores of the 70’s and 80’s.
The cast are decent. Sofia Karemyr leads the film extremely well and it’s a confident debut from the young actress. Berger is solid as the one good guy from the side of those in power. Pernilla August is superb as the exploitative madam who overseas an empire of prostitution. Their wealth and grip comes from their dealings with people in power. It gives them a strong hand to play when needed.
Call Girl does overstay its welcome somewhat though. At two hours the film does meander somewhat through the middle section. Balancing two stories from either side of this racket plays a part in that. Occasionally the film gets a little lost in how wonderful it looks, it veers off into style over substance, but that said it is fantastic style. For the sake of pacing though the film needed a bit more urgency in the middle and a bit more thrust in the story.
In all this may not reach the heady heights of other recent Swedish cinematic offerings but it’s still a worthwhile watch. Nicely crafted and well acted, it’s a strong film in need of a tad more focus at time. I wouldn’t be expecting to see a Hollywood remake of this one either. Besides, Chloe Grace Moretz is very busy at the moment!
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Tom Jolliffe
Originally published October 28, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
