Though the premise of the "straight" woman falling in love with a lesbian has been done to death, contrary to other negative reviews, that premise is not really the problem I had with this film. After all, it's quite common for women who have primarily been in relationships with men to discover their love for women later on in life. I actually appreciate that there are stories out there that attempt to reflect that reality. However, so often these stories are filled with tropes that don't entirely tell the whole truth. And unfortunately, this film fell victim to the trope mindfield.
First and foremost, the writing was way too saturated with plot. It left little time to build a truthful connection between Mia and Frida. It was a bit cheesy that we start off with Tim and Mia getting engaged and then announcing their engagement at her father's birthday party; I feel like that was something that could've already been in play before the start of the film. It was pretty evident that Mia and Frida were not straight identifying since they were giving each other the "eyes" the moment they met. What was weird to me is that the women didn't know what the other looked like or even their names before meeting. In the age of social media, I feel like you would know a bit about your father's fiance and her family, even if you are estranged. And especially because Frida had a close connection to Mia's brother, Oskar, one would assume he would've shown her pictures of Mia and Tim before meeting. Starting off the story with these women discovering their physical attraction for each other just wasted time. If they already knew they were attracted to each other, and had Mia already known that Frida was a lesbian before they met in person, a lot of time could've been saved building up the actual connection between the two.
With that being said, the biggest problem I had is that it felt as Mia and Frida's "love" was basically built off nothing. There was no intellectual connection or connection built off shared loneliness. The mark of a great romance is when each person discovers something about themselves through the other yet I didn't notice that here at all. It actually would've made more sense if one (or both) of the women didn't know they were attracted to women. Yes, that's an overdone trope but at least it's a connection built on self discovery. To later learn that both women are already attracted to women just made the connection even less meaningless. I mean, why did they feel have such strong feelings about the other? And why was this love worth all the sacrifices of cheating on and then leaving people that they already loved? Their connection seemed to just be built off lustful physical attraction and their opposing personalities, which made it very difficult to buy into the fact that they actually loved each other.
However, one of the best moments, I think, is when Mia tells her dad that she was going to marry Tim because people expected it. I think this is true of many couples regardless of their sexual identification or history of cheating. Perhaps this is why Mia fell for Frida: through their relationship she discovered that she didn't have to do things just because people expected them. Yet, it didn't really feel like Frida helped her discover that. I mean, Mia could've found that out by falling for anyone, really.
Overall, despite the weak script, I thought the acting was really great. I was really impressed by Liv Mjones who I thought did a fabulous job of showing vulnerability and rawness. The other actors were amazing as well and I'm sure this film could've done well on an international level had the script been a little tighter, especially because same-sex romance films between women are few and far between.
First and foremost, the writing was way too saturated with plot. It left little time to build a truthful connection between Mia and Frida. It was a bit cheesy that we start off with Tim and Mia getting engaged and then announcing their engagement at her father's birthday party; I feel like that was something that could've already been in play before the start of the film. It was pretty evident that Mia and Frida were not straight identifying since they were giving each other the "eyes" the moment they met. What was weird to me is that the women didn't know what the other looked like or even their names before meeting. In the age of social media, I feel like you would know a bit about your father's fiance and her family, even if you are estranged. And especially because Frida had a close connection to Mia's brother, Oskar, one would assume he would've shown her pictures of Mia and Tim before meeting. Starting off the story with these women discovering their physical attraction for each other just wasted time. If they already knew they were attracted to each other, and had Mia already known that Frida was a lesbian before they met in person, a lot of time could've been saved building up the actual connection between the two.
With that being said, the biggest problem I had is that it felt as Mia and Frida's "love" was basically built off nothing. There was no intellectual connection or connection built off shared loneliness. The mark of a great romance is when each person discovers something about themselves through the other yet I didn't notice that here at all. It actually would've made more sense if one (or both) of the women didn't know they were attracted to women. Yes, that's an overdone trope but at least it's a connection built on self discovery. To later learn that both women are already attracted to women just made the connection even less meaningless. I mean, why did they feel have such strong feelings about the other? And why was this love worth all the sacrifices of cheating on and then leaving people that they already loved? Their connection seemed to just be built off lustful physical attraction and their opposing personalities, which made it very difficult to buy into the fact that they actually loved each other.
However, one of the best moments, I think, is when Mia tells her dad that she was going to marry Tim because people expected it. I think this is true of many couples regardless of their sexual identification or history of cheating. Perhaps this is why Mia fell for Frida: through their relationship she discovered that she didn't have to do things just because people expected them. Yet, it didn't really feel like Frida helped her discover that. I mean, Mia could've found that out by falling for anyone, really.
Overall, despite the weak script, I thought the acting was really great. I was really impressed by Liv Mjones who I thought did a fabulous job of showing vulnerability and rawness. The other actors were amazing as well and I'm sure this film could've done well on an international level had the script been a little tighter, especially because same-sex romance films between women are few and far between.