Wild Strawberries Review

Number 115 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Swedish drama, Wild Strawberries.

Isak Borg (Victor Sjostrom) is a 78 year old scientist who has become distant, cold and withdrawn.  He has grown apart from his family and has few if any personal relationships.  However, when he goes on a car journey to receive an honorary degree, he begins reminiscing about his past life and soon rediscovers himself.

Much of Wild Strawberries is told in flashbacks and dream sequences, making it expressionistic and abstract.  I liked a lot of this imagery, as it helped to develop a lot of Borg's character.  One particular sequence saw a clock with no hands, a strange man without a face and Borg seeing himself in a coffin.  It wasn't too difficult to infer that despite his hard exterior, he is a deeply troubled and lonely man, and the expressionistic imagery did well to convey these ideas.

Having said this, I found the film quite difficult to follow.  Although I did like the abstract imagery and the underlying themes, I think that the film jumped too often between the dreams and the on-screen action.  This resulted in everything seeming a bit vague and under-developed to me.

 I didn't like the characters that much either, as they seemed like caricatures of themselves, especially Sara, Viktor and Anders.  The three hitch-hikers were overly-stereotypical and not entirely realistic.  Sara claimed to be a virgin, but also made a number of sexually suggestive comments.  This didn't match up for me.

 Furthermore, the vast majority of the characters were little more than plot devices to drive on Sjostrom's narrative.  They weren't fully-formed characters in themselves.  For example, the hitch-hiker Sara has the same name, as Borg's unrequited love.  Another scene sees a couple squabble intensely, which I feel is supposed to be a metaphor for Borg's own failed relationships.

Ultimately, this film I wasn't too keen on.  I found it similar to Ikiru, but I think that it had a lot of unrealised potential.  The underlying themes and imagery were strong, but the narrative and characters were not.