Stockholm

A rather odd bank robbery, responded to with an equal degree of the nutso, the robber himself like a devotee of Bonanza, the cops like classical musicians playing jazz, huggably unreels in Robert Budreau's Stockholm, a bizarro affair romanticizing the awkward, as if in order to respectfully reflect the improvised nature of the heist, extemporaneous production scenarios were evocatively conceived, or as if everyone involved feigned jurisprudent expertise, while delicately crafting loose knotted clips at random.

The police and the robber both consider alternative outcomes, and each volatile exchange further augments their misunderstandings.

It's as if they're trying to play sports but the game they're playing doesn't exist, the boundaries separating theory and practise simultaneously establishing while deconstructing themselves, like they're anxiously attempting to generate code, stipulation, or principle, yet can't quite construct any durable foundation, like suddenly trying to take up astrophysics, or the attempts of zoo animals to imagine independence.

It's like both sides are revelling in tomfoolery at times, but since neither participant knows what they're doing, foolishness is perhaps not the best word, expedient lucidity potentially providing semantic clarity, the comedic applications of either evaluation playfully emergent in the rebellious bottom line.

The comedy is difficult to boisterously generate within, because the policepersons are uptight, and Lars Nystrom (Ethan Hawke) is very kind.

The police assume they have the upper hand and negotiate without taking him too seriously.

He tries to create genuine fear but he's so nice even his hostages adore him.

The laughs are much more subtle, much less bellicose than those you often find in American comedy, as if Stockholm reasonably transmits thoughtful European sensibilities.

When Nystrom resorts to unorthodox methods the results aren't funny at all though, a huge downer in the old botched-robbery-hostage-taking-wild-west-romantic-comedy.

But he is forgiven, and, in fact, rewarded, for his inspired blunder.

Excelling at orchestrating romance for a highly dysfunctional spell, while mismatched adventurous characters dubiously prance and spar, Stockholm's still somewhat too serious a lot of the contemplative time, which would have been less ironic if it had made a little bit more sense.

An absurd scenario no doubt.

In which the realism's too ridiculous.

Tough to pull off.