Springet (English title: The Leap) is yet another obscurity from the ongoing Cine Europa 10 European film festival. Its so obscure that I had trouble locating it in IMDb under its English title and had to look it up through its director, Henning Carlsen. Sad to say, the movie is mediocre and not very well done. It begins as one type of film, abruptly changes to something else at its mid-point, and then ends without really resolving anything.
The movie opens with 42-year old Tobias (Mikael Birkjǽr) being told he has pancreatic cancer, is terminal and has only a few months to live. Despite the support of his loving wife Ruth (Susanne Storm), he becomes depressed and begins reflecting on his childhood love Ida (Marina Bouras) and an incident that happened (the "leap" of the title) wherein she encourages him to leap from the balcony of their house with an open umbrella.
The first half of the movie seems to be moving towards being a life affirming drama about facing death, with Tobias being encouraged by Ruth to pursue his ambition of being a professional musician, and the flashbacks to the childhood leap a metaphorical way of telling Tobias that he needs to "take the leap" and pursue his dreams.
But then, without warning, Tobias suddenly announces that he's alright, he's not dying. Even more surprising, the doctor who diagnosed him turns out to be Ida's father, Overlǽgen (Peter Steen) who beat him up when he was 15 after he caught Tobias and the sexually-precocious Ida making out. So it then becomes a mystery: why did Overlǽgen lie to him? And what happened to Ida, who became a professional ballerina, then abruptly ended her career several years past. Is her father indeed keeping her a virtual prisoner in their home? This second half is the less engaging part of the film, as the mystery is not satisfactorily developed and resolved. In fact, because of this abrupt shift in tone, the would-be life-affirming climax loses its impact and the resolution is unsatisfying. Making the end even more confusing is a brief epilogue in which Tobias, in voice-over, says that if given a choice, he would choose eternal death over eternal life.
So is it worth watching? Not really. I don't regret watching it but at the same time, I really can't recommend it to others. The performances are okay, with the actors who play the young Ida and Tobias particular standouts. But the weakness is in the script and direction, which are uninspired and muddled. The filmmakers seem unsure as to what they really want to say. Are they making a statement about living life to the fullest? About the impact of the choices we make in life? Its not really clear.
Still, if you have the time and you can see it for free, as I did, then you might want to try it. After all, you might react in a different, hopefully more positive, way than I did to the movie.
The movie opens with 42-year old Tobias (Mikael Birkjǽr) being told he has pancreatic cancer, is terminal and has only a few months to live. Despite the support of his loving wife Ruth (Susanne Storm), he becomes depressed and begins reflecting on his childhood love Ida (Marina Bouras) and an incident that happened (the "leap" of the title) wherein she encourages him to leap from the balcony of their house with an open umbrella.
The first half of the movie seems to be moving towards being a life affirming drama about facing death, with Tobias being encouraged by Ruth to pursue his ambition of being a professional musician, and the flashbacks to the childhood leap a metaphorical way of telling Tobias that he needs to "take the leap" and pursue his dreams.
But then, without warning, Tobias suddenly announces that he's alright, he's not dying. Even more surprising, the doctor who diagnosed him turns out to be Ida's father, Overlǽgen (Peter Steen) who beat him up when he was 15 after he caught Tobias and the sexually-precocious Ida making out. So it then becomes a mystery: why did Overlǽgen lie to him? And what happened to Ida, who became a professional ballerina, then abruptly ended her career several years past. Is her father indeed keeping her a virtual prisoner in their home? This second half is the less engaging part of the film, as the mystery is not satisfactorily developed and resolved. In fact, because of this abrupt shift in tone, the would-be life-affirming climax loses its impact and the resolution is unsatisfying. Making the end even more confusing is a brief epilogue in which Tobias, in voice-over, says that if given a choice, he would choose eternal death over eternal life.
So is it worth watching? Not really. I don't regret watching it but at the same time, I really can't recommend it to others. The performances are okay, with the actors who play the young Ida and Tobias particular standouts. But the weakness is in the script and direction, which are uninspired and muddled. The filmmakers seem unsure as to what they really want to say. Are they making a statement about living life to the fullest? About the impact of the choices we make in life? Its not really clear.
Still, if you have the time and you can see it for free, as I did, then you might want to try it. After all, you might react in a different, hopefully more positive, way than I did to the movie.
