Bergman Island Movie Review

There’s something I have to mention right away, so I don’t forget. The music in this film is sublime. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, the logline for “Bergman Island” tells us that a couple goes to the Swedish island of Fårö. This island inspired Ingmar Bergman to write some of his work.

In case you weren’t aware, the island has become a natural tourist attraction and brings many would-be or struggling filmmakers to its shores. Tony and Chris are hoping they’ll find inspiration as Bergman had. Still, getting back to the logline, the “lines between reality and fiction start to blur.” This is very much the case. For a while, you watch, you begin to realize you’re in two storylines that are becoming so intertwined that you’re not sure who’s who near the end of the movie. It’s fantastic in this respect.

The couples are Tony (Roth) and Chris (Krieps). The house where they’re staying is a simple place. Bits from a famous Bergman film called “Scenes from a Marriage” were shot inside the house. Chris is a little uncomfortable sleeping in the same bed from a film famously known for driving people to divorce, so she asks that they sleep in a different room.
Tony is quite a well-known and influential filmmaker already and he’s loved by many. While on the island, he’ll be screening one of his films. The two are writing separate screenplays. Chris is having trouble with how her script is developing. Interested in why she’s stuck, she walks Tony through the story, which becomes, essentially, story number two within the film. Pay close attention. This tale becomes very important.

Mia Wasikowska plays Amy, a filmmaker who goes to the island for the wedding of a friend. While she’s there, she sees him. Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie), the one that got away. He’s the man she has never gotten over. To a degree, he hasn’t gotten over her either, but the feeling isn’t entirely mutual. It’s this story where the film really captivates you but becomes slightly tedious as it flips back and forth between Chris’ real life and the story she’s communicating to her partially interested listener.

As the movie goes on, more about Chris and how she really felt toward Bergman, clearly Tony’s hero, comes to light. She loved him as an artist but not his behavior behind the scenes. He fathered nine children with five different women and wasn’t around to raise them. Instead, he gave his time to the twenty-five films he made and the rest of what he had in him to the theater. She didn’t like that about him and doesn’t like it in Tony.

They screen a print of Bergman’s film “Cries and Whispers.” She questions why his characters are all so awful. There’s never any tenderness in them. Why did he never explore happiness instead of just violence and sadness? As Tony screens his film, Chris meets a young man named Hampus (Hampus Nordenson). While Tony busies himself with his work, Chris gets to know him more.
I would have liked to have seen more from Krieps, but I wasn’t disappointed in her by any stretch. I wasn’t disappointed by anyone, as a matter of fact. The characters are lovely, the script is intriguing, but if there’s one flaw, it’s that the yarn didn’t have to take an hour and fifty-two minutes to spin. Amy is asked to let go of something; agreements are made here and there so, can we consider agreeing to go back to films being told in shorter timeframes from now on?