Tore - a film review

I want to talk about another of those movies that seem to be piling up these days, the kind you watch and can't quite explain why because they are not all that good.

This one fits that category. It intrigued me no end. First off, I found I had an intense attraction to the writer, William Spetz, who also plays the lead role in the TV series. It's titled Tore.

It's Swedish and takes place in Stockholm.

Tore, the main character is, like Spetz who plays him, 27 years old. He's not a loser, exactly, but he has done nothing of note in his life, has lived at home with his father since his mother's death, has no ambition, has never had sex, never gotten drunk, can't drive a car. His father, and his best friend, a girl named Linn, believe he needs to be pushed out of the nest so he can get his life started.

It's painful to watch. His naiveté is cloying, and I no doubt would have turned the film off in the first twenty minutes if it were not for his eyebrows.   

His father gets hit by a garbage truck and dies, suddenly, and the entire plot line consists in watching this immature kid fail to grow up, fail to grieve, fail to do anything useful. If I'm correct about American tastes when I say Americans like people to be "good deep down inside" I'm probably also correct when I say Swedes don't have any need for their fictional characters to be good guys. They are willing to watch somebody bob on the waves and find themselves - or not - by the end of the 90 minutes it takes to tell their story.

While Tore has never had sex, his desires are same-sex desires, and he stumbles into sex, drugs and alcohol with equal clumsiness. We're supposed to believe the story is about a guy who can't process grief. It is that, but it's just as much about a guy who can't process much of anything that matters in life. He even sells his dog, at one point, the third creature in his life, along with Linn and his father, who love him unconditionally. Spetz, the writer, risks creating a character so devoid of character and interest, that you wonder at some point, as I said, why you're still watching. It can't be just the eyes and the eyebrows.

There are some very graphic sex scenes, and they are well played. The drag queens are talented and the child actors are well chosen.

A mixed bag of a movie. My guess is the reason I got to the end is that I couldn't believe this guy could mess up his life so badly; I had to wait to see the happy ending that I hoped would be there.

I also want to give credit to movies that feature gay characters who play roles that have nothing to do with their being gay. I can't put the label "The Long Hard Slog to Gay Liberation" on this one because it depicts a world in which gay characters are not fighting for liberation; they are living with it and in it.

Won't spoil the ending for you.

Netflix streaming - six episodes