Film critic was too generous

Instead of awarding the film the two stars it deserved, Dagens Nyheter film and music critic Fredrik Strage had assigned Arn three stars out of a possible five.

Arn was released in theatres nationwide over the Christmas holidays.

Writing in Dagens Nyheter, Strage calls the adventure epic set in the medieval era “unbearably boring. I had written that its 219 minutes felt like a whole medieval week, but the film’s monumental stiffness first became apparent to me when I viewed it a second time.”

The film is based upon a series of books written by popular author Jan Guillou.

The film’s producer, Johan Mardell had previously complained that the poor reviews the adventure epic set in the Middle Ages received might make it difficult in the future to finance film projects like Arn, which cost a record 210 million kronor to produce.

Guilty about his earlier lapse of judgment, film critic Strage gave several disappointed moviegoers their money back out of his own pocket after the performance.

David Bartal