REVIEW: Stockholm (2013, Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

We, as audiences (and I should qualify that as Western audiences) are so seldom expected to examine entrenched sexual paradigms as they are represented on the screen. It is not that they are not considered, there is a reference here or there, or an inversion that spotlights a niggling disparity, but they are rarely openly challenged. It is rare that a film maker will take a heel-digging stance and force us to re-evaluate our gaze.

To do so risks courting descriptors such as "heavy handed".

I'll throw that adjective at Stockholm, writer director Rodrigo Sorogoyen's carefully structured exploration of the power dynamics of heterosexual courtship, but I'll throw it at the film with a caveat: it only feels heavy handed because it presses so deeply into the fray. In doing so Sorogoyen, consciously steps over, circumvents and resets many of our traditional (read unquestioned) expectations of "the chase" on film.

Stockholm's premise is as basic as a premise can be: boy (Javier Pereira) meets girl (Aura Garrido), boy falls in love with girl, boy pursues girl, happy ending. Or, in this instance, happy middle, and possibly not all that happy, depending on how you look at it. Hopefully it is not giving too much away to draw comparisons to John Fowles' 'The Collector'. Sorogoyen works over a sweet romantic dalliance with an ever-so-slightly-creepy edge. He and his co-screenwriter Isabel Peña drop enough stalkerish cues into the scenario to keep both Garrido and the audience on their toes.

Perspective is key. Stockholm takes a his and hers approach to the pre and post coitus scenarios, with each half stylish differentiated down thematic lines. The first, shallow focused, roams the subdued, blue-hued streets of early morning Madrid, as Pereira persistently, charmingly pursues the uneasy Garrido  The second, sterile and unforgiving, shuffles uncomfortably in the clean, clear focus of morning.

There is an undeniable agenda here and Sorogoyen and Peña are not subtle in pushing the point. The way we view the hunter and the prey is heavily gendered in ways most don't care to admit. At its best the filmmakers press their audience into a position where they cannot help but re-examine the events playing out in front of them from both points of view. That requires some tough love and Stockholm bears the marks visibly. Garrido and Pereira wrestle with the material in terms of characterisation but they do an admirable job of smoothing over the more strenuous leaps and when they hit their respective strides they prove that the film's theoretics have real life in them.

It is a shame that, within a framework that pivots so crucially on the dynamic of sexual power,  Sorogoyen cannot afford Garrido's character the unrestrained agency of her counterpart. She's hamstrung by intimated mental illness and an unnecessarily disempowering finish, both decisions that seem at odds with the film's thematic thrust. If these missed opportunities weren't enough to prompt another pass at the screenplay, the tonally incongruent layering of Rossini over the film's central and most crucial scene certainly should have.

As I say, Stockholm is heavy handed, but don't let that keep you away. Sorogoyen's film is captivating, and like the titular syndrome, you'll be defending it soon enough, even if it is a challenge. His and her actions and reactions may be amplified to the point of discomfort, and their interplay may not flow as easily as it could, but there's a lot of worthwhile ideas to chew on. They're tackled here as well as I've ever seen them confronted on the big screen, at least this openly.

Take your significant other, your intended, or your fuck buddy, but do leave plenty of room for discussion post-screening.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Stockholm is currently screening as part of the Spanish Film Festival.