Fresh
"Simon and the Oaks" branches out in ways unusual and interesting enough to hold your attention and then even shake it a bit.
Tom Long, Detroit News
Overview
Epic story about two families and their friendship and common destiny in Sweden's Gothenburg in the 1940s and 1950s. Told from the perspective of young Simon Larsson, who learns that he's an adopted child who has a Jewish father from Germany. After WWII Simon travels to explore his roots - a journey that leads to the basic mysteries of the human life. After the bestselling novel by Marianne Fredriksson.
Director and cast
- Lisa Ohlin Director
- Bill Skarsgård as Simon Larsson
- Helen Sjöholm as Karin Larrson
- Stefan Gödicke as Erik Larsson
- Jonatan S. Wächter as Young Simon
- Jan Josef Liefers as Ruben Lentov
- Karl Martin Eriksson as Young Isak
- Karl Linnertorp as Isak Lentov
- Erica Löfgren as Klara
- Katharina Schüttler as Iza
- Josefin Neldén as Mona
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
53%
Tomatometer
Fresh
The sheer sincerity of everyone concerned bolsters the whole enterprise so that Ohlin's historical novel-on-film holds us.
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic
Fresh
"Simon and the Oaks" is not merely the story of two boys from opposite sides of the tracks. It's also a larger meditation on life's hardships and what endures: love, art and civilization.
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
Rotten
With its fool's-gold cinematography, over-emphatic musical score and self-important protagonist, "Simon and the Oaks" is a puny acorn that dreams it's a towering achievement.
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fresh
[A] lush, handsomely crafted middlebrow epic ...
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
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