Hotell may be an ensemble drama that offers an acting showcase for its stars, as well as an examination of grief and a trifling with identity; however it is also a mature and measured feature unafraid to handle its content and concept in a manner unusual to most. What starts as a maternal nightmare centred on a new mother becomes a considered exploration of coping and catharsis – one hired sleeping space at a time.
A delivery fraught with trouble sparks Erika’s (Alicia Vikander, The Fifth Estate) descent into depression, transitioning from a buoyant mother-to-be to a traumatised parent. Distance separates her from her doting duties of the mental rather than physical variety. The tale of a woman she once read about resonates with her, as she ruminates on the view of treating her inner self as a hotel – psychologically waking up in a different room each day. When she joins a support group to help work through her issues, she suggests they take the idea to its literal conclusion.
Skipping between well-to-do establishments, Erika and her motley crew of fellow lost souls play with varying personalities and road-test happier times, each overnight stop a step on the path to accepting their own respective lots in life. With her partner (Simon J. Berger, Home) at home with their offspring, she finances the journey of discovery for her newfound friends, the mother-fixated Rikard (David Dencik, We Are the Best!), insecure Ann-Sofi (Mira Eklund, Sex, Hope and Love), self-hating Pernilla (Anna Bjelkerud, Call Girl) and overly restrained Peter (Henrik Norlén, The Reunion) among them.
Space is key in Hotell; that its protagonist is an interior designer normally charged with controlling the surroundings of others doesn’t go noticed. When her child breaks free from her body, entering the world in a way outside of her command, that’s when her façade shatters. When she appropriates new areas as her own, away from any markers of her former life, that’s when she attempts to piece her composure back together. Writer/director Lisa Langseth (Pure) doesn’t waste any opportunity to make the division apparent, yet hers are not the stylistic choices of obviousness. In her second pairing with Vikander, the filmmaker is as subtle as her lead actress in wading through the fragile mindset of someone struggling when the pretence of calm is exposed.
With cinematographer Simon Pramsten (Cockpit), Langseth carves out distinctive aesthetic approaches befitting the before and after and the home and away, not to mentioning a harrowing hand-held hospital sequence that sets everything in motion. Where warmth first radiates, a detached coolness soon infiltrates; the supposed safety of the familiar is replaced by the possibility of the unexplored, framing changing in response. Naturalism reigns, however, whether the lens finds constraint in indoor spaces or lurches free on the rare occasions it ventures outdoors. The visuals may reflect Erika’s state, but they aren’t beholden to her dramatic shifts that range from uptight perfectionism to the no-holds-barred state of letting everything go.
Instead, Vikander best illustrates the overt emotional see-sawing in her character’s spiral through chaos, as ably complemented by a respected cast given meat on and meaning in their supporting roles. Not a single fictional figure is rendered with simplicity; not a single performance is kept in the same key. Indeed, it is the willingness to show the complexity of such circumstances, the sentiments that spring and the relatable folks trapped within that lifts Hotell beyond a wealth of thematically similar material. There’s sorrow and amusement, big moments and quiet glances, but there’s mostly the sting of the reality of facing life’s parade of unanticipated developments.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Hotell
Director: Lisa Langseth Sweden / Denmark, 2014, 97 minsScandinavian Film Festival
www.scandinavianfilmfestival.com
Canberra: 8 – 20 July – Palace Electric
Sydney: 9 – 27 July – Palace Verona & Palace Norton St
Melbourne: 10 – 27 July – Palace Cinema Como, Palace Brighton Bay
Brisbane: 11 – 20 July – Palace Centro
Adelaide: 23 – 31 July – Palace Nova Eastend
Perth: 24 – 30 July – Cinema Paradiso
Byron Bay: 25 – 30 July – Palace Byron Bay
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