Film Review – Simon and the Oaks

“Simon and the Oaks” make a curious choice to be a WWII drama without
much in the way of wartime suffering. Eschewing grand displays of
European misery to keep confrontations intimate, the feature is an
unexpectedly bitter effort, surveying the erosion of domestic protection
as a situation of parenting assistance turns into a colossal shift in a
household dynamic. This Swedish picture, based on the best seller by
Marianne Fredriksson, is surprising but also frustrating, especially
when larger ideas on musical liberation and environmental connection are
lost to the melodrama, resulting in an intermittently powerful, yet
vaguely detailed film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com