My Life as a Dog (The Criterion Collection)

Charming Swedish look at the adult world through a child's eyes. An 11-year-old boy in the late '50s is sent to stay with relatives in the country when his mother becomes seriously ill, and learns valuable lessons about love, separation and growing up from the locals. Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Bromssen star. 101 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: Swedish Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English; bonus film "Shall We Go to My or Your Place or Each Go Home Alone?" (1973); interviews; theatrical trailer. In Swedish with English subtitles.

Simultaneously elegiac and raw, this uneven--but unforgettable--tearjerker tells the story of Ingemar, a 12-year-old working-class Swedish boy sent to live with his childless aunt and uncle in a country village when his mother falls ill. Beginning with several representations of the most savage, unsentimental domestic intensity imaginable (interplay between a sick parent and loving child has never looked anywhere near as explosive), My Life as a Dog wisely doesn't attempt to maintain that level of danger; rather, the change in locale to rural Sweden is accompanied by a slackening of pace and a whimsical breeziness. Nevertheless, the tragic condition of Ingemar's mother (and later, the indeterminate fate of Sickan, his beloved dog, consigned to a kennel) hovers over the narrative with a gripping portentousness. At times, director Lasse Hallström misplaces the rhythm, and the film threatens to degenerate into a series of rustic vignettes; luckily, Ingemar's relationship with Gunnar, the jocular yet somewhat sinister uncle who essentially adopts him, carries a fascinating charge. In Swedish, with subtitles. This was later rewritten, whether intentionally or not, by Spike Lee, who changed the gender of the child, set the story in New York City, added a 1970s soul soundtrack, and called it Crooklyn. --Miles Bethany