Tiger Love: A Wild Ride or Just Catnip?

I sat down on a rainy Tuesday (you know, one of those dreary April ones where you keep wishing it was still March so you have an excuse to eat semlor) to watch Tiger Love, and I gotta say, calling this film “unexpected” is selling it short. Directed by Catharina Lund and with that legendary old fox Mikael Persbrandt playing “Bosse,” I figured it’d probably end up being one for the books, right? But, well, it wasn’t exactly as sharp as a knife from Morakniv, if I’m honest.

Let’s just get it out there – Tiger Love tries to mash up drama and some kind of romantic comedy in a way only Swedes would even consider pulling off. And half the town is in this one. There’s Tuva Novotny turning up and Andreas Wilson, looking as confused as me at my first kräftskiva.

The thing is, parts of it genuinely reminded me of when I was just a lad and smuggled my neighbour’s VHS tape of “Farlig Förbindelse” from her summer cabin in Bohuslän. That sense of sneaking around, half on edge, half giggling – it’s all here, but with tigers instead of a weird Glenn Close.

It sort of ambles along, sometimes roaring with brilliant dialogue, then suddenly snoozing mid-pounce. I love how Göran Hallberg’s camera chases the characters around that gloomy Stockholm flat (seriously, do none of these people buy a lamp? It’s mood lighting gone bonkers) but the music is so overwhelming I sometimes wondered if the tiger was actually in the orchestra pit.

You’re bound to relate if you’ve ever felt a bit feral after a breakup, or just wanted to claw the wallpaper when life gets odd. Maybe watch it with a friend, some surströmming handy for extra chaos. Honestly, I can’t decide if I loved it or just got Stockholm syndrome. But for a Tuesday in April, it was almost good enough.

Catch me at the cinema next week, probably still humming that weird tiger song.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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