Storm
Starring: Eric Ericson, Eva Röse, Jonas Karlsson,
Directed By: Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein
Written By: Måns Mårlind
Released: 5/27/08
Grade: B-

Storm is a film that mixes matrix style with dramatically intense instances in the life of our main character. Running away from the past is a huge basis for the film, which becomes a journey in facing this. This action won’t just affect one, but all of man kind. Storm uses these memories, forced to be relived again as well as these seemingly immortal and powerful figures, each fighting a different unknown side to us, to simply find and acknowledge truth.

Donny (Ericson) is from the small town of Vänersborg, also known as “little Paris”. The first chance he could he left, and going back seems like a nightmare to him. However, his early life may become one very real nightmare to him. One night, someone gives him a box, saying that it is absolutely vital that he doesn’t lose it and that no one else gets it. Donny is told that it is the key to everything. He takes it, and shortly after the woman who gave it to him dies. Donny is found in a picture taken of the woman and becomes wanted for her murder.

He soon learns that a powerful woman who comes into this life, Lova (Röse), is part of this and much more. She soon opens up a series of horrible memories throughout Donny’s past. The first of these is a bong rape with a his 14 year-old girlfriend. The next is when he locked his younger brother in to a shed. He left him there, just standing by without saying a word, as his family frantically searched for him. He was never found and eventually died in that place where he was tricked in to by his big brother, simply because he was foolish enough to trust him. This wasn’t the only sibling that Donny harmed though. Before this, Donny and his sister, Katla, were very close. One day they were walking home from school and were stopped by an older group of guys. They were picking on Katla and harassing her. Donny just didn’t know what to do, feeling that he couldn’t protect her, he became frozen. The boys manipulated Donny to turn on Katla by stomping on her glasses. After this, he was so frantic that he just ran away, almost forgetting about Katla. Just as Donny comes back, shouting for her to come his way, she walks the other way and unable to see what she is doing, she becomes the victim of a terrible accident.

It soon appears the Lova is not the only one, able to show things like this. The man in the suit (Karlsson) plays with Donny’s already very confused mind. It is obvious that he is fighting against Lova, but who is good and who is evil? All of human existence could depend on Donny protecting the box and only trusting the one fighting for him rather than against him.

Visually and technically the film is very impressive. It has a very futuristic style to it. However, this as well as all of the fighting scenes actually took a lot more away from the movie than it added to it. A major problem here is that it desperately wanted to be a complex film assuming that would tie meaning to it, making it a good film. By trying to do this, they leave a lot of blanks and plot holes. Even when its’ done, the questions are still there, left unanswered. When we start seeing Donny’s past is when the movie really shines. What we see has such an intensity to it. Donny has lived in denial of the horrors of his past. Now this is a little faulty since unless there is some sort of injury or illness involved, you can’t really forget life altering events like the ones that he had experienced. So these events, coming as news to him seems a bit odd. However, putting this aside, it does change his life by seeing these things. He had clearly been running from his past. It is even stated that Donny hasn’t been able to feel pain since he was 10. This is a representation of him not accepting what has happened to him, making himself numb to it all. After he is forced to process these horrible things, at the same time he is told that none of this was actually true, that they were all allusions put in to his simply to sway and manipulate him. When you can’t distinguish fiction from reality how are you supposed to realize who is responsible for the two of these? It is easier to believe the right thing is to follow the one who is telling you what you want to believe. What is interesting about this is at the beginning of the movie, we believe in Donny, not suspecting a thing about him. Yet when we find out the possibility that he could of committed horrible acts against those he claimed to love, there was a major questioning of him as a person and all that he is capable of.

The whole plot of why this box will defend on the existence of humanity wasn’t very strong. It simply didn’t have any reasoning or anything to back it up. Another unanswered question in the film is why did they choose to focus on Donny. Was there something special about him or was this something they eventually did with everyone? Why would his memories threaten to ruin all human lives? Yes, there are some disturbing memories there, but how would that really equal the destruction of humans? These are some major things that we are just expected to accept with out really going in to any of it. When it comes down to it, what makes this movie worth watching is just witnessing Donny as a character, trying to figure out what kind of a person he is, and whether or not he will ever come to accept these things, so change can be possible. This shows us the theme of not being able to feel. As humans we run away from things that are difficult, making nothing you think you feel after that truly authentic. These dramatic and emotional instances by far outweigh the thriller chase scenes and the futuristic graphic atmosphere. Sure, it’s cool to look at but it just ends up tangling the meaning in the film with flashy mysterious plots that never really go anywhere. Luckily, there is enough care and precision shown through Donny, his life, themes of accepting the truth to in turn be true to yourself, along with the tremendous performance by the lead actor, Eric Ericson, that although flawed, it is still a movie that can be enjoyed and appreciated for the moments that take their time to depict meaning.

- Kelsey Zukowski