"Stockholm" is worth viewing for the excellent performances of Ethan Hawke as the incompetent hustler Lars Nystrom and Noomi Rapace as the hostage Bianca Lind, who falls under his spell due to the Stockholm Syndrome.
But the film was disappointing in the shallow approach to a serious subject. The true story of the standoff at the Kreditbanken of Stockholm in 1973 ultimately was trivialized in the film. While it was fine to have a quirky approach to a historical incident, much of the action was not credible.
The biggest leap taken by the filmmakers was to avoid the realities of captives identifying with their captors in what came to be known famously as the Stockholm Syndrome. Instead, Bianca and Lars more or less fall in love!
The film was also compromised by the sluggish pace, especially when the moronic duo of Lars and his old buddy Gunner decide to set up their headquarters in the bank vault! A clueless police inspector rounds out the improbability of the way a hostage crisis unfolded.
One of the reporters referred to the bank crisis in Stockholm as "one of the strangest episodes on record." But the film artists made the event even stranger by turning Lars Nystrom into too nice a guy and a deeply troubling situation into "Love Story."
But the film was disappointing in the shallow approach to a serious subject. The true story of the standoff at the Kreditbanken of Stockholm in 1973 ultimately was trivialized in the film. While it was fine to have a quirky approach to a historical incident, much of the action was not credible.
The biggest leap taken by the filmmakers was to avoid the realities of captives identifying with their captors in what came to be known famously as the Stockholm Syndrome. Instead, Bianca and Lars more or less fall in love!
The film was also compromised by the sluggish pace, especially when the moronic duo of Lars and his old buddy Gunner decide to set up their headquarters in the bank vault! A clueless police inspector rounds out the improbability of the way a hostage crisis unfolded.
One of the reporters referred to the bank crisis in Stockholm as "one of the strangest episodes on record." But the film artists made the event even stranger by turning Lars Nystrom into too nice a guy and a deeply troubling situation into "Love Story."