Cynical Cinema

“The whole garden is full of angels” 

Unfortunately here, I am not reviewing Brenda Brave.  Rather, I am reviewing the English-language DVD release of Brenda Brave.  And there is a difference.  Because I suspect that the dialogue difficulties come more from the translation of the film from Swedish to English for the dubbing.  The DVD of Brenda Brave, out November 25th from First Run Features, has no subtitles or other languages.  The only way to watch is dubbed into English, and I really think something was lost in translation.  The dubbing makes the actors look amateurish, the direction look weak, and the dialogue ham-handed at best.

And I suspect the direction was not as bad as all that.  Daniel Bergman has a considerable pedigree.  And no, I don’t think that simply being the son of Ingmar Bergman means that you will have the same level of talent.  I have seen, first-hand, how the apple has fallen far from the tree of say, Bob Dylan.  Because Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers were terrible.  But at the very least, I would imagine that a certain amount of exposure to the film world thanks to your upbringing would make you capable of directing a movie in a competent way, at the very least.  And nothing about this one seems competent.

Brenda Brave is a short film (30 minutes) based on a story written by Astrid Lindgren, who is most famous for writing the Pippi Longstocking novels.  The film involves a young girl, named Brenda, who lives with her grandmother.  At the beginning of the film, she asks her grandmother to tell her the story of how she came to live there again.  And her grandmother, grudgingly, tells her the story, once again, of how she found Brenda in a basket with a note that said “take care of this baby”.  Everything about this film screams “Schmaltzy Claptrap”.  But again, I think the translation does not help, with awkward lines like “go to town, past the store, and sell this candy, then when you return past the store, go in the store and give them this note”. 

So Brenda lives this idyllic, if poor, life with her grandmother.  But when her grandmother breaks her leg just before Christmas, things look dire.  If she can’t get to town to sell her candy, they can’t afford a Christmas.  So little Brenda (who has to be about four or five years old, tops - she can’t read, and she is three apples high), takes it upon herself to bring the candy to the market and sell it to help the family.  So now we have the overly long set-up of the “what would I do without you” grandmother-granddaughter relationship, and we also have the tiny-child-sucking-it-up-to-save-the-day scenario.  Schmaltzy claptrap award, here we come!

Brenda sells the candy.  People think she’s cute, so she sells a lot.  I suppose she is cute, but I’ll bet she’s cuter in Swedish.  And she returns home to her grandmother (well, she calls her grandmother.  But really she’s the lady who found her in the basket.)  And they have a Christmas after all, and the little girl gets a doll with the same note that was in the basket when she came “take care of this baby”…aaaaaah!  Claptrap!  Then there are the prayers.  This is what indicated to me that a lot was lost in translation.  This is Brenda’s prayer, every single night, before she goes to bed:

“An angel walks around our house.  He holds two golden candles.  In one hand he holds a book.  Now let us sleep in Jesus’ name.”

This must have been translated, pretty much literally, directly from the Swedish.  Because in English, it makes no damn sense at all.  But again, I am blaming the translation.  And I suspect that, even in Swedish, this movie is pretty schmaltzy and simple.  I am just guessing that it’s better than this.  It’s heartwarming, it’s good for kids (although I bet they won’t be entertained), and it’s quick and simple.  But it’s also schmaltzy claptrap, and wins this week’s award!