Gangster (2007)

This story contains two beautiful love stories. Both relate to two siblings. Antonio and Nathalie. Antonio is torn between an old girlfriend Tanya who is a cop and a new one Jasmin that is the right hand woman of The gangster boss Thomas Steel. The other love story involves Nathalie, Antonio's kid sister. One night she meets this rich young man called Alexander. I don't want reveal why they meet since that would give away too much of the plot, but through this unexpected meeting Alexander's life totally changes. The story has elements of film noir and mixes cars from the fifties with cell phones. Mikael Persbrandt who plays the Gangster boss who Antonio works for is superb. The settings are magnificent. I have never seen anything like it in a Swedish film.

Generally speaking Swedish films reflect a mentality of narrow minded social realism...Gangster on the other hand is a dark fairy tale. A fevered dream. I was Spellbound by Photography so lush I forgot the drab reality waiting just outside the theater. Its a no holds barred cinematic joy ride. Guns. Cars. Intrig. Chase. Seduction. Sexy chicks. Sexy men. High concept with a dash of pagan symbolism. Great music. Stunning photography. Everything an entertaining movie should have, even the bold choice of its eclectic art direction and the soulful soundtrack added to the exotic flavor of this film.Gangster is a breath of fresh air in a mausoleum of cultural cadavers. At 127min running time it seemed much shorter because of the directors command of the material. It was a sensual dance of rhythmic images that altered the experience of time, also thanks to imaginative editing.The down side? - Having been made in Swedish = Its at the mercy of a provincial group of critics suffering from small town syndrome ... ( Swedish critics are world renowned for their plagaristic ways lacking in any original capacity to judge for themselves ... Simply put = Gangster is over their heads )Had it been made in English with the same sensibility Gangster would have been a smash hit. Never the less I think at the end of the day it will do extremely well. Either way I hope there will be an English remake...There is an old saying about throwing pearls to swine...The time may be ripe for these very talented filmmakers to move on to bigger and better things...I highly recommend this film to anyone with an Open Mind, a sense of Adventure, and a Romantic Spirit...BRAVO GANGSTER!

This movie is not worth seeing, at least not at a cinema. The story is hard to follow and understand (it starts with 10 minutes of something happening 3 years earlier). It's hard to know if this movie is trying to be a comedy or just is so bad/weird that it sometimes seems like it. American sirens and lights on Swedish police cars is just one example. The acting of Persbrandt and Bergqvist is good as usual, but I think Jenny Lampa acting as Jasmin acts very poor. Zara Zetterqvist acts pretty well, she's not been seen as an actor in Swedish movies for a long time. If you still want to see it, wait until it's released on DVD or is shown on TV.

Where do I start. Lets list the good things about this movie first.1. Mikael Persbrandt is great as the Gangster Thomas. This is the only character you will actually care about, and he's a bad guy! (allthogh never does anything bad, and is generally a pretty likable guy) 2. Kjell Bergkvist is always great. He's a bit toned down here, but he is quite funny still 3. The movie looked pretty good by Swedish standards, good use of depth of field and lights.Now the bad. This is by far the worst script to make it into the big screen ever. The acting by everyone else was pretty bad and over the top. The direction was horrible. A totally meaningless story, totally unrealistic characters and events and 1.5 hours to long. During emotional scenes pretty much everyone in the theater laughed. People just started walking out during the course of the screening. There's no way to actually summarize the story into something coherent, so I wont even try. Every cliché ever conceived is in there, and in all the wrong places. I'm sorry to say this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my entire life. Watch it for a good laugh, but try not to pay any money for it ;).R