Three Suns (2004)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This was the first Swedish movie (except Josef Fares' movies and Vuxna Människor) that I saw from the beginning to the end. Not because it was exciting or incredibly interesting, but because our extremely boring Swedish teacher forced my class to see it.After have seen Tre Solar I have also come to the conclusion that she also had extremely bad taste.Why Tre Solar is awful: 1. The script was probably printed on an A3-paper, there are approximately 3 lines in this movie. 2. The props is horrible, maybe because of the low budget or a lack of inspiration. 3. The actors are showing a complete lack of knowledge about acting.All of this results in Tre Solar being an excruciating horrible and sad, sad movie.It is also sad to see that splendid actors such as Rolf Lassgård and Rikard Wolf chose to participate in this movie.

As happens, one's own views on a particular movie will vary the majority received opinion. Most of the time, the reason for an under- or over-rating is comprehensible. In the present case, however, I am at a complete loss as to understand such an extraordinarily low vote. Is this the same movie that I saw? The date, the cast and plot description would indicate that it is. The only reason I can think of is that since the other reviewers currently listed are Swedish, perhaps the majority of ratings are from Swedes also. Is a native Swede, therefore, able to pick out some particular aspect of the film which I was oblivious too - a cultural or linguistic point perhaps? A brief look at the film will be required first. Three Suns is set in Sweden in the Middle Ages. Some of the men have left to join the crusades, and the black death is a recent arrival. The film focuses on one woman who is waiting for news about her husband, Ulf. Upon hearing about his imminent return, she leaves her two children in the care of her father in law and sets out for the coast to meet him there. Without giving away too much of the slender plot, she meets various people, good , bad, generous, selfish, infectious, healthy, along the way.Generically speaking, then, this is a road movie, the journey of a woman done very much in a woman's terms - and I think this is where so many of the negative reviews stem from, not out of conscious sexism, but from the terms on which this journey is carried out, its tempo, its motivation and its denouement. Without wishing to push a particular stereotype, I think it is possible to comprehend much of the action in terms of a womanly response to certain situations, complete with certain foibles like impatience, vanity, impulsiveness and the occasional lapse of logic. The action makes more sense when seen in this light, with the only caveat being whether a woman would have been permitted to behave in such a manner at such a time in history, or be allowed to express so openly her opinions and attitudes. As for the other characters, I found them utterly believable, especially insofar as superstition and selfishness surge forth when disaster seems imminent.As for the actors, I thought they did well. I haven't seen many recent Swedish films, so wasn't thinking about how a particular actor or actress usually looked (something which also seems to have irked some reviewers). Nor was I particularly distressed by the wigs, having had the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy to get used to them. The clothing, buildings, carriages, and so on, all seemed authentic enough to my untrained eye. The scenery was lovely to look at, and in my mind was the high point of the film. As for the language, I was reading the subtitles, so the subtleties of older versus modern Swedish were not an issue for me - the language in the subtitles seemed appropriate enough, with no glaring lapses into modern idioms. The dialogue was fairly standard, with occasional humour. There is none of the pondering depth found in, say 'The Seventh Seal', set in a similar time and place, but there is enough to occupy the viewer in the simple human interactions. The music was standard, but pleasant, complimenting the action well.For me, this was, at face value, an enjoyable film. It was hardly earth-shatteringly original, but was competently done, with the interesting setting and attractive photography making up for a relatively uncomplicated plot, and some unusualness regarding character actions and motivations, which I've examined in this review already. I'm glad I took a risk on this one, in spite of its incomprehensibly poor rating.

Tre Solar takes place in Sweden just as the terrible plague hits the country, Hanna, a mother of two children, is awaiting the return of her husband Ulf who has been away for four years, fighting a war for god, suddenly gets the message that her husband is returning in a few days. She heads off to meet him, not aware of the plague. This is the beginning of an dangerous journey through the leftovers of the plague, a nasty killing-cult and a crazy barber in the search for her husband.This movie goes deeper than just being entertaining, its about people who have lost everything finding comfort in each other, and how people act to save their own skin when endangered. I actually enjoyed the entire movie, finding it both funny and scary. It has some pretty gross scenes, not by visual images but what you imagine they have been going through. Tre Solar leaves a lot of room for you to imagine, normally i hate this kind of filmmakeing but in this case its actually more effective.The acting is superb! The elite of Swedish actors is casted, I don't think it would have been all that great with another casting. Kjell Bergqvist and Rolf Lassgård are the hearts of the movie even though Rolf only has a small role. Lena Endre pulls through all the way making a believable character. Almost every newspaper in Sweden gave this movie a bad review, I can't see why. This is actually a GOOD movie and the most interesting work of art coming out of Swedish filmstudios in a long time. Well worth seeing!7/10

Sorry about my crappy English. It isn't easy to write this comment without laughing...And the award for worse wig ever goes to... The entire cast of "Tre Solar"!I don't think I've ever laughed this much to a Swedish movie before and I doubt that I ever will. This is so bad that... that... I can't find the words to describe how awful this really is. Throughout the entire film I excpected Terry Gilliam & C/o to show up, banging coconuts together, pretending to ride imaginary horses.Finally, I beg to the producers to NEVER ever show this film outside Swedish boarders. We can't let anybody think Swedish cinema stinks this much. Because if you do, nobody is gonna give us foreign money so we can film the books about Arn.