Her ordinary life fails to captivate
Like him or not, Ove, the uber-cranky protagonist of Fredrik Backman’s 2012 novel — and its 2016 Oscar-nominated film adaptation — “A Man Called Ove,” was a pretty memorable creation.
Unfortunately, the title character in Swedish import “Britt-Marie Was Here,” based on another Backman book — and a kind of distant literary cousin to Ove — isn’t unique or captivating enough to power an entire film, especially one this familiar and undemanding.
Britt-Marie (a low-key Pernilla August) is a dowdy, regimented 63-year-old homemaker haunted by childhood loss who leaves her distracted husband (Peter Haber) of 40 years after discovering he’s been unfaithful. In need of work, she takes the one position offered: a soccer coach at a crumbling youth recreation center in a rural village.
How Britt-Marie is paired with this job is a mystery: She admittedly wouldn’t know a soccer ball from a meatball. Despite the efforts of director Tuva Novotny and her cowriters, Anders August and Oystein Karlsen, to square this, the film can’t quite surmount its fanciful conceit.
Britt-Marie digs into her new career and improbably wins over her “Bad News Bears”-like charges plus a smitten local cop (Anders Mossling) and her nearblind roommate (Malin Levanon). But the movie, though at times engaging and relatable, never works up the requisite head of steam.
“Britt-Marie Was Here.” In Swedish with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes. Playing: Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles.