‘F—ing Bornholm’ Review: A Mordant Study of a Family Vacation Ruined by Boys Behaving Badly, At All Ages
variety.comGuy Lodge Film CriticIn the movies, as a rule, family vacations go wrong far more often than they go right: We may crave rest and relaxation when we travel, but it’s less interesting to watch others do the same.
Rarely, however, have a few days at the beach degenerated quite so tensely and toxically as they do in “Fucking Bornholm,” a dark, distinctly unrelaxing comedy from Poland that mines male abuse, entitlement and ennui for laughs that all come with an accompanying wince — whilst aligning its sympathies firmly with a put-upon wife and mother, superbly played by Agnieszka Grochowska, trying and sometimes failing to keep it all together.
A less abrasive provocation than its confrontational title might suggest, writer-director Anna Kazejak’s precise, piquant film deserves wider festival exposure and discerning distributor interest following its international premiere in the main Karlovy Vary competition.
With its coolly arch comic tone, neat formal composure and flourishes of orchestral scoring to accompany proceedings of escalating awkwardness and emotional injury, “Fucking Bornholm” is likely to put many arthouse patrons in mind of Swedish iconoclast Ruben Östlund — in particular, his breakout feature “Force Majeure,” which covered comparable thematic terrain of masculine absence and irresponsibility in the bourgeois family unit.
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