Monica Z (2013) Reviews

• Great film about a Swedish Legend

  iam_moriya2013-10-09

  I left the theater smiling. It's rare that I get to see a truly good movie, but even more rare than that is that I see a truly good Swedish film. Monica Z is a biography movie about the Swedish Jazz-singer, actress and variety performer Monica Zetterlund. It begins with the words "Freely based on the life of Monica Zetterlund" and after that tells a story of a talented but self-destructive singer who struggles to get the man she loves and, more importantly, the respect of her father. The film succeeds where so many biography movies fail. Instead of trying to squeeze an entire lifetime in roughly two hours this one has a clear story arc and focuses on a short period in the persons life. The film has received some criticism for that, though. Some are not happy that the film differs from reality and some believe it to take place in a 15 year time span without the characters, and more specifically Monicas daughter Eva-Lena, doesn't age. However, they missed to read the text in the beginning. This is historical fiction. Many parts of Monicas life are boiled down into a time span of roughly 2-5 years at the most. The point was to tell a story based on and inspired by Monica, not a documentary. And that's why did movie is so good. Besides the well-crafted story, the look of the film deserves it's fair share of credit too. This is a gorgeous movie, from design to costumes to the cinematography. It's great to look at. Last, but not least, Edda Magnasson. She doesn't play Monica. She IS Monica. At times this movie feels haunted she's so spot on. Even in the music numbers. Edda performs all the songs herself and sometimes I was fooled that it really was Monica with Edda just lip syncing the words but no, it's her. All the other actors are great as well but they just glow compared to Edda who shines like a Supernova. If nothing else this movie is worth watching just for her.

• Too liberal with artistic freedom

  per-612014-06-08

  Well, this film does abuse the character of Monicas father as well as others. If one have to make evil portraits, do not use real persons names. And, there was no bus-service from Hagfors to Stockholm, she would take the train to Karlstad, and the express-train from there to Stockholm. I also doubt the New York episode about Negroes and blondes. Anachronistic and filled with errors. Also have a hard believing that Hagfors did not have an automatic telephone exchange in 1960. But the film is well played, lovely songs, nice portraits of some other personalities, it also contains full frontal nudity and nice Stockholm scenes. Why it is I gave it a 6.

• Chronology?

  stensson2013-10-06

  Let's first make clear that Edda Magnason is fantastic as Monica Zetterlund, an icon in Swedish jazz music and entertainment. Not at least when she sings. It's almost scary. But the script about her life outside stage is a melodrama on at best average level. The chronology is strange, 15 years pass and her daughter doesn't get older and nothing new is put to the common movie myth about the self-burning artist and her soul. We're quite in love with the early 60s now. Both we who were where and the rest of us. Which doesn't mean we're so interested in this way of romanticizing it in this way, even the destructiveness it kept

• Under the Spell of Monika Z

  kgenereux-75-5335762016-12-25

  very minor spoiler at the very end of this review... It seems like Sweden was under the spell of Monika Z for a few decades. Here in the USA, we do not know her. Yet her story is so familiar: beautiful girl from a modest background. Big hopes and disarming talent. Poised for major discovery and stardom...with hopes foiled and rekindled many times along the way. Yet we never grow tired of the story, do we? Because every ending is different perhaps. This movie tells the tale in a more modest way than an American film would. It does not try to razzle dazzle us with Hollywood-style production numbers. It focuses more on Monika navigating between artistic impulse and fame obsession and the kaleidoscope of repercussions. True narcissists are rarely redeemed by self awareness or minor tragedies.With that in mind, I was kept in suspense wondering whether Monika suffered from a deep incurable personality disorder or a long bout of reversible blind ambition. I was not disappointed with the cinematic build-up to the final reveal. I know Danish, and watched the movie in Swedish with Danish subtitles on Danish public TV. Some of the nudity may have been cut, but I did not find anything offensive or describable as "full frontal" as another reviewer from Norway has mentioned. I only wish this movie had a full soundtrack of Edda Magnusson singing Monika Z classics. Her voice is enchanting. I like her renditions of Swedish jazz classics even better than the Monika Z samples I have heard on youtube. I gave the movie 10 stars, because rarely do I want to watch a movie twice, and now I plan to watch it for a third time in fact! The movie's only minor flaw was the bar scene with Ella Fitzgerald. The exchange was not very convincing to my mind. The actress who played the great EF was perhaps too strident. I would have expected a more reserved, almost indifferent reaction. So maybe the blame is also on the lines written. So to be precise, I would say 9 1/2 stars. Enjoy!