STOCKHOLM: Finds A Perfect Balance Between Broad Humor & Sincerity

STOCKHOLM: Finds A Perfect Balance Between Broad Humor & Sincerity

Stockholm, written and directed by Robert Budreau, is based on the true story of the Norrmalmstorg robbery, a 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm, Sweden and the origin of the concept of Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm, in addition to changing names and minutiae, fabricates the unknowable interactions that took place inside the Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg. Stockholm is remarkably successful in its balance and variety, mixing broad humor and moments of sincere human connection between its leads, Noomi Rapace as hostage Bianca Lind and Ethan Hawke as erratic bank robber Lars Nystrom.

Overuse of the term “Stockholm Syndrome” in both media criticism and conversations of true crime makes Stockholm’s narrative a tricky one to tackle without either oversimplification, condescension (particularly toward the female hostages), or attempts to excessively pathologize human behavior, but Stockholm allows Lind and Nystrom to be fully realized and complex people, rather than feeling like archetypes or case studies. Stockholm finds universality in the remarkable specificity of Lind and Nystrom’s situation, and allows the audience to draw their own conclusions about what connects people to one another in extraordinary circumstances.

“It’s not too bad. We want to leave with them.”

Stockholm balances its tonal variety well – admittedly, it is easier to enjoy the humor throughout this because no one in the proceedings dies or is gorily injured, but also because Stockholm is successful in reflecting tonal shifts with aesthetic choices. This is apparent in the shot variety throughout – wide shots play up physical humor, while close ups highlight the emotion and sincerity of Hawke and Rapace’s more intimate moments, and a few impressively long takes raise tension throughout.

STOCKHOLM: Finds A Perfect Balance Between Broad Humor and Sincerity
source: Blumhouse Productions

Lighting and color also effectively enhance the contrast between the world outside and the insular world of the bank, between the moments of serious emotion and light absurdity. The bright, almost pastel colors of the city of Stockholm highlight the naïveté of the surrounding culture, their unpreparedness to handle this type of crime, and it is in this lighting scheme that much of the humor involving the local authorities takes place. The lighting within the bank, however, grows darker as the group proceeds further and further into the recesses of the bank; the most intimate scenes between Lind and Nystrom take place in the moody, dim lighting of the bank vault, and are given visual character that allows the viewer to more deeply invest in the seriousness of their feelings for one another.

“There’s an American with a big gun.”

Ethan Hawke as Nystrom is a comedic success, and combined with Hawke’s knack for sensitivity, shines as a well-rounded, albeit strange, character. Nystrom is an anxious, insecure man, eager to be convincing in his leather-clad persona (he demands to be called “The Outlaw” by authorities), but desperation to reject his past vulnerability leads him to make rash decisions throughout. He is easy to like and, more importantly, enjoyable to watch, as he tries and fails to rise to his absurd standard of masculinity, and as he tries and fails to emotionally disconnect himself from the hostages.

STOCKHOLM: Finds A Perfect Balance Between Broad Humor and Sincerity
source: Blumhouse Productions

Rapace as Bianca Lind is also strong throughout and carries much of the sincere moments of the film with heartbreaking vulnerability. One such scene – in which Lind frantically explains to her husband how to cook dinner for their children while she is held hostage – encapsulates the complexity of the character – she is concerned about her own life, of course, but also about how her children will eat dinner while she is away. Even in her most dangerous moments she is concerned about them, and that responsibility she endures are felt throughout. Stockholm invests in exploring the complexity of her mental state, and why she is, at first glance, inexplicably quick to connect with a man that could harm her.

“We will let the ladies go when it’s over.”

Stockholm Syndrome is a term most usually applied to female hostages, and it’s easy to make the victims in these cases seem mentally fragile, without agency, without the logic or wherewithal to have agency in their emotional decisions. In this way we discount the complex roles of women, their lived experience up until the moment of capture, and the way that affects their experience as a hostage.

STOCKHOLM: Finds A Perfect Balance Between Broad Humor and Sincerity
source: Blumhouse Productions

For example, we feel the weight of Lind’s role as a working mother and wife immediately, and this continues throughout the film, conflicting with her growing feelings for Nystrom. This raises a myriad of challenging questions not only about the narrative of the film, but the absurdities of our own lived experience. Is Bianca Lind, consciously or unconsciously drawn to the thrill of escaping from the demanding roles in her day-to-day life? Are adrenaline-filled, sudden feelings of love at first sight any more logical than the connection Lind feels for Nystrom during the bank heist? Is Lind’s attraction to a man she does not know, who has the capability to do her direct physical harm, any more sensical than a woman in a conventional relationship trusting a man with whom she has been on three dates? And more widely: can love arise anywhere, between the most unlikely two people, if the physical, psychological and emotional settings are just right?

Stockholm depicts its central love story to play out without mocking, overly pathologizing, or judgment, and rather, devotion to Lind and Nystrom in their most intimate moments, widen the conversation to encompass the fickleness of love as we all experience it. It asks its viewer the same question so many people ask themselves when they hear of similar situations: would I, or could I, have reacted any differently?

Stockholm: Conclusion

Stockholm is by no means a thrilling heist movie about the planning and execution of a complicated bank robbery, and is far more interested in how people interact in isolation, how feelings and connection erupt in spaces of heightened tension in ways that seem illogical to those outside of those spaces. Stockholm is successful in doing the impossible – making the viewer understand and even empathize with the interpersonal connection between a hostage and her captor, and vice versa.

It is a touching, bittersweet story about an ephemeral relationship that can only exist in isolation from the consequences of reality. Stockholm successfully isolates Lind and Nystrom’s relationship from its specific, extraordinary circumstance and grounds it in the universality of experiencing emotions, including love, that defy logic.

How do you feel about the type of discussions that take place regarding Stockholm Syndrome, in terms of both fictional and real life cases of the phenomenon?

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