The beginning of the year can demand a lot from you. Christmas presents need to be exchanged, the holiday meal may still need to be digested, New Year’s resolutions may still need to be kept, and the New Year needs to be planned. Perfect for discovering a film on the couch that clears your head with its bizarre humor and fast-paced plot.
This is exactly where A Very Bad Day by Jon Holmberg from last year comes into play. One Swedish action comedy that you can find on Netflix. With a lot of Nordic charm and a good pinch of black humor.
On Netflix: In A Very Bad Day, an electronics salesman becomes public enemy No. 1
Conny (Filip Berg) is an inconspicuous electronics salesman. Excitement and action in his life? None! That changes suddenly when he falsely accused of murder becomes. Classic “Wrong time, wrong place”. Even his lawyer assigned by the court (Måns Nathanaelson) cannot prevent Conny from ending up in prison.
From prison, Conny tries everything to prove his innocence. The only problem is that the case is closed for the police. So it doesn’t help, Conny has to get out somehow to find the real perpetrator on your own. But anyone who expects an escape story à la Prison Break is wrong. Surprisingly, the tunnel to the outside has already been dug. Two gangsters have already prepared their escape plan down to the last detail. All that’s missing is a pilot for the escape machine – and here Conny senses his chance.
But since he doesn’t want to run away, he has to shake off his two fellow escapees. All while being chased by the police. What follows is one crazy escape that becomes more and more chaotic. He stumbles from one absurd situation to the next: mix-ups, bizarre secondary characters and action-packed chases ensure that there is hardly any time to breathe.
Fast narrative pace meets Swedish humor: perfect for switching off
What’s particularly entertaining about this film is its… fast-paced storytelling. Whenever you think that the plot might drag on – for example during the outbreak – the story unexpectedly picks up speed. You hope that something specific happens to keep things going and that’s exactly what happens. The film really surprises by not surprising.
A really bad day plays with the classic principle: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It’s easy to sympathize with Conny because he doesn’t actually do anything wrong – and so the excitement comes naturally. The film also has the classic Swedish humor with a large pinch of sarcasm, which is well known from other Nordic works such as A Man Called Ove, One by One or Kops.
The film delivers exactly what many people need at the beginning of the year, when they just want to switch off and laugh during the New Year’s stress. A really bad day is streaming with a subscription to Netflix.