Last week I attended the opening gala of Toronto's Inside Out LGBT Film and Video Festival. The film was Patrik, Age 1.5, a Swedish romantic comedy/drama that had previously screened at TIFF to great reviews.
The plot, although nothing radically new, was a definite crowd-pleaser: a gay couple's attempt at adoption goes awry when a typo on their documentation leads them to believe that they'll be receiving a one-and-a-half year-old instead of a fifteen-year-old. Think Canada's Breakfast with Scot, but substitute the flamboyant, knitting Scot with Patrik, a troubled teen with a rough past and a tendency to utter homophobic slurs and pummel the neighbours' children. Naturally, Patrik throws a wrench into the relationship between sensitive physician Göran, who warms to the boy, and his bearish, rough-around-the-edges, heavy-drinking husband Sven, who wants Patrik gone from their house immediately.
Although the film's trajectory and conclusion are predictable, this familiar Anne of Green Gables-esque "strange child initially disrupts but ultimately changes everyone's lives for the better" storyline is treated with such warmth and humour that I found myself completely charmed. A near-perfect blend of comedy and drama, Swedish director Ella Lemhagen never allows her film to become maudlin, nor does she resort to stereotype or classless gay jokes in attempts to get laughs. Thomas Ljungman is a perfect Patrik, totally convincing in his angsty moments and when cracks in his armour begin to appear, and Gustaf Skarsgård's charming and endearing Göran is easily the film's most winsome character. Watch for the scene when, in a rare moment of outward anger, an enraged Göran destroys a public garbage bin and then, realizing he was being watched, stoops sheepishly down to pick up the trash he'd scattered.
Funny, sincere, and refreshing in its depiction of gay relationships, Patrik, Age 1.5 is worth a viewing. Hopefully it will be available on DVD shortly. Until then, watch the trailer here:
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