The Swedish family drama, which straddles between light and painful, shows how traveling together heals wounds

Let go (Sweden 2024). Directed by Josephine Bornebusch. Netflix.

★★★

When in the movies let’s go on a trip, the actual journey made by the main characters is often something other than a physical transition from one place to another.

In Netflix’s Swedish drama film Get loose (2024) a family of four packs into a car and heads to Skåne to cheer on their teenage daughter in a pole dancing competition.

The feel-good American drama of 2006 comes to mind Little Miss Sunshinewhere with the strength of several generations, they set out to win a daughter in a beauty contest. The result was a tortuous, but precisely because of that, also healing wounds joint empowerment road trip, where difficult family relationships begin to soften.

Swedes the starting points are at least as difficult. Before leaving for the trip, the father of the family, Gustav (Pål Sverre Hagen) notification of a desire to resign. Tired of skipping families (just like Little Miss Sunshinessa!) mother Stella (Josephine Bornebusch) reacts calmly, even though under the surface everything is at the breaking point. As always, he packs the family’s belongings, the celiac boy’s snacks and announces that we are leaving.

As you can imagine, the journey is going to be awkward, and everyone would rather be somewhere else. A defiant teenager does not want the company of his parents, couples therapist Gustav fiddles with his cell phone and plans a new beginning with his colleague. In the middle of everything, Stella’s loneliness and, on the other hand, the need for control only grow.

On the other hand, Gustav is not doing any better either. Along with his wife, he has lost contact with his children, and feels useless. He can’t get anything taken care of properly, not even hotpants. It would seem easiest to let go.

But again a joint journey shows its strength. Huddled in themselves, Gustav and Stella have to face the things that have pushed them apart. We have to ask together why nothing is like before.

While pondering these, the sensitive film nicely turns its attention to the everyday. In the dialogue, you can hear many difficult conversations, which are still being held in families after the children have gone to bed.

The movie directed and written by Josephine Bornebusch, who plays the lead role. The general public remembers him above all for the comedy series Solsidanin as a sophisticated Micka. In recent years, we have seen a gratifying amount of his work – both as an actor, screenwriter and director, just one example being the drama comedy love me. Bornebusch has partly become a guarantee that there is a quality between mild and painful.

That’s what it’s all about now, too. This time, Bornebusch uses less humor than usual to poke fun at the pain points of family and parenting, which doesn’t hurt. The twist at the end is already in the sob section.

The movie the best gift is Bornebusch’s own acting, which really draws the viewer in. She does it so skillfully that she sometimes finds herself identifying with the mother of the family who gave her all.

The director-writer’s gaze is therapeutic, but not in a straining way, but in a way that awakens understanding. When Gustav and Stella go through their own failures, the walls come down. We are in this together.