It is bittersweet to revisit the self-destructively kind Göran and the rag-weaving Klas, 25 years after the happy snowball war that ended the story of the motley extended family Together. When the turn of the millennium is upon us, only Göran and Klas are left. In a mexitegel villa somewhere in Central Sweden, they cling more and more desperately to the collective dream of the 70s. Depression is not far away.
But there will be a birthday party and reunion! One by one they fall to Göran’s (Gustaf Hammarström) undisguised delight. Moodysson has brought together almost all the actors, now half a century older and their characters to varying degrees marked by life, time and the world order.
“Together” was a phenomenon as so many saw that it is still possible to reel off lines like “rather oatmeal together than pork chop alone” and be understood. It’s brave to recycle such a film, but Lukas Moodysson seems quite undaunted. Much is recognisable, but not much else.
Moodysson knows his characters as close friends, it is as if they walked by his side and developed in obvious ways. The noble welder Erik (Olle Sarri) is just as touchingly black and white, even if he has turned inside out on his views. Klas (Shanti Roney) has put life on hold in his longing for Lasse and Lena (Anja Lundqvist) is more unbearable than ever.
David Dencik makes a very funny one effort in a role that makes everyone insecure. Nobody recognizes him. Wait now? Who was HE? The uncertainty also causes the audience to screw up, in the same way as the collective members, we may have both razor-sharp and cloudy memories of what it was like when it started.
When I take the opportunity to re-watch “Together”, I realize that it is among the children that the film really takes place. “Together 99” misses the children. Moodysson instead lets in a group of fragile young people with whom he is unyieldingly in solidarity. It’s likeable and lets in oxygen among the red wine-toothed and blasé 68s.
And even if time passes, oatmeal can actually heal all wounds.