SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Armand a film about family. values, secrets, members' links, fight for survive, fears, miracles. a film about the levels of life for a boy. and, sure, about oaks. impressive in that case is not only the high performances or the atmosphere, the story or the testimony of the lead character about his universe but the splendid strange feeling. it seems be one of stories who are parts of viewer life. in a special manner. Bill Skarsgard as Simon is brilliant but its art has a great frame. the landscapes, the flavor of the old world behind the war, the nuances of acting from his partners. a film like a web of emotions. a good source of reflection. about the life and about its truth. and about the price of each human age.

talltchr World War II experienced from an oblique angle. The characters are just far enough from the vortex that their lives are spared, but not so far as to avoid its terror or the antisemitism that changes the course of their lives, Jew and gentile alike, by pervasive fear. Special mention should be made of the character Isa played by Katharina Schüttler. She's a young woman who emerged from Auschwitz traumatized and reckless. From the actress's first moment on screen, we see that this is someone we have never encountered before. Perhaps in another generation she might have become Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, et al) but in this film, she's a well of anger and fatalism. She's the wild card that makes Simon realize there are limits to his rebelliousness. Indeed, all the characters test their limits: Karin to have an affair, Erik to maintain his anger and jealousy, Inga to keep either the love of her life or her son, Isak to enter the world, Reuben to satisfy his desires. The film is unfailingly absorbing and, despite a few fanciful scenes with the tree and the clouds, utterly genuine.

OJT Maybe I had too much expectations for this, but it was a pain to watch this to the end. I must first of all say that I haven't read the book of which this is based. I understand that this book is re-known, and I also understood that this was nominated to nothing less than 13 guldbaggar in Swedish film.Well, that's not at all understandable to me. I tend to like films like this, but I'm afraid to say that this film is impossible to get hold of. It's pretentious, both in manuscript and in acting.But far worse is it that it becomes boring when the chemistry between the actors are missing.What is likable, is Bill Skarsgård. He's the one coming from this alive, due to his charm, though the film can't seem to make the best out of it. Simon is not likable, if still charming. Maybe also with small Isak. A good actor, but not taken care of. I see this as helpless instruction of what must be fine actors to work with.I tend to see it as Lisa Ohlin is not cut to make films like this. Both on screen writing and in directing this is very flawed. Overacted, constantly staring people is bad enough. What's even worse is the sense of us not believing one bit of the story. It's too far fetched. It might have worked in the book, but in the film, when something gets remotely interesting, it's a cut into pieces. The clipping work is awful. It tears up what could have been a great scene. Like when Simon is confronting his parents. The next scene is him walking away from the little house with luggage on his bike.Even more stupid is the thoughtful sequences, which are far-fetched, boring and badly done technically. The whole thing about the oak is also both pretentious and artsy fartsy. It makes you yawn and hate the concept.What is good, is the environment and filming. Beautifully shot, it is, and so in vain, when the rest is not making up to it. I've read some quite good reviews for this one, but the critics must have been out to lunch. Such a waste. It's not a turkey, but rather a pheasant. I'd rather have chicken, any day.

woutervandersluis I always wonder what exactly kitsch is. This movie makes it more clear to me. All the drama and tragedy in life is in it but it is only the outside of it while avoiding the real pain of life. It is worse than being sentimental to have such a pretense. Its making a feel good movie out of stories of life which are in reality each in itself a feel bad event. And because it avoids the real tragedy it needs so many stories to fill up this pretense of really having to tell us something worthwhile about human life. Of course the movie needs the blackest story of the European history to hide the emptiness: the holocaust. And then it does not show or even tell anything true about that genocide, the dark abyss of human nature. The Jew who barely survived the camp to die shortly after that, leaving a violin to his bastard son which he begot with a Nordic nymph in the woods of Sweden at a brook. A nymph who growing up turns out to be a schizophrenic woman living alone with pigs in that same wood. That's two cliché's with the strange twist of the pigs.I mean how much do you need Mrs Fredriksson (the author of the novel) to make a story? A lot more, a lot more.