Cat Worship

I was not impressed with "Love Child," any part of it, ever. It's a short you might want to like because it's 'cute,' but 'cute' is not necessarily a compliment. Cute is all this movie is. It's saccherine sweet, trite, and goes unresolved.

It starts with a little blonde Swedish girl (first-time actress Tindra Nordgren,) maybe five or six. She celebrates the simple joys of life by making blueberry pie with her parents (Magnus Krepper and Cecilie Nerfant.) Then they get a cat.

What experience she first highly anticipated quickly becomes sour, as her parents shower the cat with love and attention. The siuation is so over-the-top it doesn't earn our sympathy, as the parents coo over the cat barfing all over the carpet.

The cat, like most cats, remains aloof, unmoved by the displays of affection. After a few days of this, the girls takes desperate measures to get her family back (no, the beloved pet doesn't meet a gruesome end, as it would in a evil child thriller.)

Nordgren, as the girl, does a good job, but the movie is lame. The characters, especially the parents, are underdeveloped, even for a short film, and one might wonder why the parents would treat a cat who treats them so dismissively like the big 'it,' when there is a human girl, their daughter, right before their eyes.

Above all, it is too 'cute.' For a darker, much better Swedish film about childhood, watch Tomas Alfredson's full-length feature "Let the Right One In," if you can handle vampires and child-on-child violence. If you must, watch this short online, but don't expect a little gem.





5/10