Björn Gustafson Movies

Love becomes a family affair during a trip abroad in this sunny comedy from France. Albert (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) is a bright but socially inept librarian who has partial custody of his teenage daughter, Jeanne (Anais Demoustier), whose mother divorced him years ago. Each summer, Albert takes Jeanne on a vacation with him to a different country; while the trips are intended to be her birthday present, it's clear to everyone but Albert that she'd just as soon not be bothered. As Jeanne is about to turn 17, Albert packs her off to join him in a voyage to Sweden, where he hopes to find valuable Viking artifacts with his metal detector, while she would prefer to have fun on her own. Albert and Jeanne end up sharing a vacation house with two women, Annika (Lia Boysen) and Christine (Judith Henry), and while Albert seems a bit intimidated by his new roommates, Jeanne is impressed with their spirited attitude and quickly bonds with them. As Albert pays a visit to a doctor following a minor accident, Jeanne meets a local boy named Johan (Bjorn Gustaffson) and finds herself falling head over heels for him; meanwhile, Christine becomes increasingly attracted to Albert, and Annika is also called on by Cupid when she unexpectedly crosses paths with a former boyfriend. Les Grandes Personnes (aka Grown Ups) was the first feature film from director Anna Novion. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Scripted (but not directed) by Ingmar Bergman, Best Intentions is a multilayered backwards glance at the courtship of Bergman's own parents. Henrik Bergman (Samuel Froler) is a struggling theology student in the year 1909. His intended, Anna Aakerbloom (Pernilla August, who married director Bille August while the film was in progress) is from a well-to-do family. Despite the expected class differences and personality clashes, love-or at least mutual understanding-prevails. But after a harsh, spare few years as the wife of a clergyman, Anna yearns for the more bountiful pleasures of her family home. Bergman writes himself into the proceedings as a mewling infant. The current three-hour theatrical version of Best Intentions (original title: Den Goda Viljan) was simultaneously prepared as a six-hour TV miniseries, which ran in Europe, Scandanavia, and Japan. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Following on the heels of the preceding animated feature, Pelle Svansloes (Peter No-Tail), this moppet adventure film has no real scares for the tots. Peter No-Tail -- his forever embarrassing lack of a tail makes him the butt of jokes, so to speak -- dreams that he is in the Wild West. Just as he is overcoming his enemy Hobo Mans, he wakes up. Peter decides to take a trip into the forest, but unknown to him, Hobo Mans and his catty sidekicks are after him again, and this time it is not a dream. It takes all of Peter's ingenuity with a large measure of blind luck to escape his tormentors -- but then Fate steps in and Peter has a chance to let his good nature save the day. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Pettersson (Stellan Skarsgård) and Bendel (Allan Edwall) (the latter a refugee from a Polish dictatorship, the former a confirmed amateur capitalist) get together in the big city to see what they can skim off the top and are successful until their luck changes and the two men are back on the bottom of the barrel again. One of the difficulties with this film is that it swings from restrained comic interludes to tragic events, and back -- while hewing to a predictable plot. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi