Happy Finish

A Nordisk Film discharge of a Zentropa Intl. Sweden, Trollhattan Film presentation and production. (Worldwide sales: TrustNordisk, Hvidovre, Denmark.) Created by Madeleine Ekman. Directed by Bjorn Runge. Script, Runge, Kim Fupz Aakesen.With: Ann Petren, Malin Buska, Gustaf Skarsgard, Johan Widerberg, David Dencik, Mariah Kanninen, Hanna Malmberg.Good intentions don't always result in preferred effects in "Happy Finish," the most recent feature from Swedish theater and periodic film director Bjorn Runge ("Daybreak," "Mouth to Mouth"). A little web of interconnected tales that fans out around an eager mother's difficult rapport together with her thin-skinned artist boy, the pic reps an average slice of Scandinavian miserabilism, from the solid acting to the fairly straightforward aesthetic. Pic preemed in the recent San Sebastian fest and will also be welcomed at other film occasions, though ever-after happiness is likeliest around the Euro tube. Widowed driving-school instructor Jonna (Runge regular Ann Petren) takes her grown-up boy, Peter (Gustaf Skarsgard, Alexander's brother), in after he suffers a failure and it is abandoned by his pretty g.f. (Hanna Malmberg). Home, the still-fragile painter falls for pretty Katrine (Malin Buska), Jonna's cleaner, who's herself in an abusive relationship together with her b.f. (Johan Widerberg), who owes money to some thug (David Dencik). Aesthetically more straightforward than "Mouth to Mouth," this depressing crisscrosser does feature one attention-getting sequence: a sluggish zoom that discloses ace thesp Skarsgard's face because he asks Katrine an essential question.Camera (color), Ulf Brantas editor, Lena Runge music, Ebba Forsberg production designer, Jette Lehman costume designer, Anna Karlsson. Examined at San Sebastian Film Festival (competing), Sept. 20, 2011. Running time: 94 MIN. Contact Boyd van Hoeij at news@variety.com