A tricksy number from the acclaimed Swedish director Roy Andersson, this film has no real plot but instead features fifty shortish scenes of different characters engaged in surreal, satirical versions of everyday life. Switching between comedy and tragedy, the film makes an impression through its visuals, with the almost entirely studio-filmed scenes taking place in a world of washed-out pastel wallpaper, misty mornings and - most prominently - opening and closing doors.
The constant switching from scene to scene, with only a few characters returning, never becomes irritating but instead holds the interest, with the viewer knowing that there is always something else coming shortly. This is fortunate, as the sketches themselves prove frustratingly uneven. Some of them are great deadpan comedy, others mix amusing lines and images with serious pathos, but too many simply make clichéd points about modern life while lacking dramatic or comedic flair. It is these dry, often deliberately overlong scenes that you feel the film thinks are its most important, but they come close to sinking it - characters such as the groupie hung up on a local musician and the whiny, attention-seeking alcoholic woman keep on repeating the same lines in different settings, and these scenes lack subtlety or dramatic momentum, especially as these same characters, among the few who do appear more than once, do get one or two more amusing and more articulate scenes that provide a bit more variety and insight into their personalities. There are simply too many slightly (purposefully) wooden, vaguely miserable scenes wedged in and they hinder and dull the film rather than giving it more impact. The briefer, more humourous skits often make the same points in much more entertaining fashion despite having the same slow, matter-of-fact pacing.
With fifty different scenes over a mere ninety minutes, it's a real challenge for the film to make any impression, though, so it's to its credit that so many scenes work on both a comic and serious level and that so many images stay with the viewer. Many of the comments do rise above the banal and the surreal, wry humour is frequently memorable too. However, the film's general oddness and visual personality leave more of a mark than its satirical and emotional sides; not a failure as such, but still something of a disappointment.