Film review: Reckless by Bjorn Erik Pihlmann Sorensen

Reckless is set in the Scandinavian suburbs during the hottest summer day. It narrates an episode in the life of two siblings. Sofia is a beautiful blonde 15 year old girl and Mads is her little brother. When their parents decide to spend a weekend away, the girl is asked to baby-sit her brother - a task she seems reluctant to execute, so she takes him to the swimming pool. Here, she meets two boys that try to hit on her. Their interest is returned, and she leaves the child to himself, without thinking of the consequences. 

It is clear that we are faced with a softly controversial film whose plot moves on two connected wires, where eroticism and social drama are interwoven, in a blurred line between a casual incident and recklessness. On one side, the man focus for Sorensen seems to be softly pushing the magnet of attraction until it reaches the sexual encounter between the teenagers: everything seems to happen with a certain naturalness. He gradually moves towards the intimacy of sex until he reaches a ménage à trois free from every morbidity, respecting the (surprising) innocence of these teens without indulging in an indiscreet gaze. The erotic charge is preserved in its spontaneity, which is not easy to accomplish. 

The other strand is linked to the dramatic component that derives from Sofia's failure to take care of her little brother, a task that her parents gave her perhaps without giving it too much thought.

Even if it would have elements to work on, Reckless does not attempt to engage in a specific discourse, but only wants to suggest something, leaving its message open, impressed on the "skin" of its characters. Several elements hint in this direction: the warmth of the light on the bodies, the cinematography that employs warm tones, the cream smeared on the body, the first physical contact, the water that glides on the bodies in the shower, the drop of blood that falls from Mads' face. The viewer is left with a feeling of insolvency, taken by a double spiral of dizziness, the erotic charge of love and the violence of Mads' drama. If the former is vented, the latter is there, suspended, waiting to be let out. 

Author : Yuri Lavecchia*

Title: Reckless

Director: Bjorn Erik Pihlmann Sorensen

Year: 2013

Run time: 21'19''

Country: Norway

Contact details: www.reckless.no

 

*Every day Cineuropa Shorts, in collaboration with Nisimazine and Lago Film Fest (18-26 July), offers you film reviews and interviews made in Lago by the brilliant Nisimazine’s team of young journalists.