Rating: 2.5/5
Hooptober 3.0 | 10/31 | Countries 3/6 | Denmark
Three people walk through the woods. A man named Mog dons a white suit. Cherry is a woman in a blue dress, walking a dog. Sampo is a man carrying a dead dog. The man in white sings a song called Koko-Di Koko-Da. He gets stuck in a loop. We pull out to an old music box depicting cartoonish versions of these three characters spinning in the display window of an antique shop.
A seven-year-old girl named Maja looks through the window, her face painted like a bunny. Tobias and Elin, her father and mother, run up to her, their faces also painted as bunnies, relieved to have found her. They purchase the music box for her eighth birthday tomorrow.
Elin has an allergic reaction during the meal to the shellfish, turning swollen and deep red. A helicopter airlifts them to the hospital. Since they shared the food, Elin tells Maja to say anything if she feels funny. The family makes a makeshift tent on the hospital bed and sleeps together, laughing about the situation.
Tobias gets a soda, some chocolates, and a cute cupcake with a candle the following day. Both he and Elin set up a tray to surprise the sleeping Maja. They sing a birthday song. Maja does not stir. They gently push her to wake her. Her body is stiff, and she isn’t breathing.
Three years pass. The couple is silent together as Tobias grabs a couple of ice creams from a convenience store. Tobias tries to make a joke, but Elin is upset. Neither wanted to go on vacation. They cannot find their campsite. Tobias puts up a tent by the road.
The following morning, Elin steps out before sunrise to pee. She shines her flashlight around and sees a white cat. The cat saunters off. Twigs snap. A man whistles. Elin turns around to see Mog, Cherry, and Sampo standing before her. She calls out to Tobias, but Mog knocks her out with his walking stick. Tobias watches in horror, unsure of what to do.
The film grows increasingly surreal as the music box characters repeatedly torment the couple. It explores the way grief has isolated the couple from each other. It asks whether they can find a shared understanding and survive.
Maja was perfectly cast — her death was heartbreaking. If life holds meaning, how does a child’s death make sense? What is the difference between a god whose intentions we cannot know and a torturer who relishes our pain?
Once the conceit catches on, the movie becomes tedious. We learn very little about the couple as they loop through. We get one moment of “revelation,” a repeated animation we saw earlier but from another character’s perspective.
This movie started tremendously and fizzled out fast. It’s not a terrible movie. Those with kids or a different audience may find this more enjoyable than I did.