E-Mail This Article to a Friend DAYBREAK

Swedish writer/director Björn Runge’s Daybreak, a facile descent into a dark night of the Nordic soul, resides in a sub-Bergman landscape of manufactured angst. Scenes from several marriages follow the downward trajectory of five couples in three thematically linked tales conveniently taking place over the same 24-hour period. At the end of an all-night heart transplant, icy surgeon Rickard (Jacob Eklund) ends an affair with Sofie (Marie Richardson), wife of his best friend and colleague, Mats (Leif Andrée), after she informs him she’s pregnant. Meanwhile, Rickard’s dour wife, Agnes (Pernilla August), is home preparing for a humiliating dinner party with (you guessed it) Sofie and Mats. Their distress pales next to that of the stun-gun-wielding Anita (standout Ann Petrén), an aging woman scorned who’s hell-bent on torturing her ex-husband and his younger bride. And so on. Stygian night gives way to winter light, and the tidy resolutions and banal catharses are as hollow as this film is cold. In Swedish with English subtitles. (108 minutes)