SummaryAnja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) lives with Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) in a large family of biological children and stepchildren. For a number of years the two adults have grown independent of each other, with creative jobs in parallel worlds. When Anja gets a terminal cancer diagnosis, their modern life breaks down and exposes neglected love. Alone with... Read More
Directed By:Maria Sødahl
Written By:Maria Sødahl
Hope
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
87
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
94% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
6% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Apr 16, 2021
100
To be sure, cancer may not sound like an inviting cinematic subject, especially to families and individuals who—like this writer—have been faced with its sometimes-overwhelming trials. Yet the effect of Hope is anything but depressing; it’s reassuring proof of art’s ability to comfort as it clarifies.
Mar 1, 2021
91
Unconcerned with happy or sad endings (or endings at all beyond the desire for one to be shared and enjoyed to its fullest), [Sødahl] focuses instead on the unbridled emotions that swirl within us on the difficult journeys through tragedy. Nothing is out of bounds.
User score
Generally Favorable
79% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
7% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
14% Negative
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
May 12, 2024
9
Unsentimental, unique, powerful. I was deeply touched by it. Definitely worth watching.
Apr 30, 2021
7
A crisis can change a relationship overnight, as is the case for a couple that has been together for a long time but has grown apart over the years. The ordeal offers them an opportunity for reconciliation and redemption, but, most of all, it affords the possibility for the rebirth of much-needed hope. So it is when a middle-aged mother and professional choreographer receives a diagnosis of a terminal brain tumor, prompting her and her theater producer partner to reevaluate the nature of their relationship. It's a difficult process, full of revelations, the surfacing of brutal honesty and the rekindling of romantic feelings that have long been sidelined by other priorities. Norwegian writer-director Maria Sodahl's third feature explores what this couple undergoes when faced with such trying circumstances, a story effectively brought to life by the film's insightful screenplay and the fine performances of Andrea Braein Hovig and Stellan Skarsgard. While the picture can be a heartbreaking watch, it also illustrates that, when there's life, there's hope, a sentiment aptly and succinctly reflected in this offering's simple but appropriate title.
Apr 15, 2021
90
Raw, melancholy and unquestionably mature, Hope understands that some wounds may never be healed. Even so, it takes a brave movie to hold that stance until its very last second.
Apr 21, 2021
88
Writer-director Sødahl expertly balances the sentimental and the acerbic, the grave and the altar. But Hope lives or dies on its central performances, and they are perfectly realized.
Dec 10, 2021
80
Perhaps the most ironic title of 2021, Hope isn’t filmmaking to set the pulses racing. Instead it’s a quiet, nuanced study of how a couple who have drifted apart deal with the direst of circumstances, perfectly played by Andrea Bræin Hovig and Stellan Skarsgård.
Dec 9, 2021
60
There is something, for me, unrevealing about the drama, and almost sentimental about the final moments. But Hovig and Skarsgård are both very good.
Jan 31, 2023
5
(Mauro Lanari)
I read it would be an autobiographical story and that Maria Sødahl did not intend to make a cancer movie. Yet for over half of the feature it is like seeing Haneke's "Amour" again but with the protagonist suffering from a brain tumor and with the style of Zentropa productions: the same drama of an incipient death in an upper-class context (she goes to bed with lipstick). Then it is also true that the centrality of the disease gives way to the analysis of the couple relationship and a romantic frankness, however honesty and realism collide with a direction that does not give up exhibiting an out of place formal talent and some emotional blackmail.
Incidentally: is there anyone in Europe who is not bourgeois or who in any case would not want to be? Once Marxist maiutics defeats false consciousness, hasn't it been perhaps discovered that the exploited are disinterested in a paradigm shift and rather desire their part/slice/share of the neoliberal structure? Wouldn't social democracy be based on a refuted anthropology?
Production Company:
- Motlys
- Film i Väst
- Oslo Pictures
- Zentropa Entertainments
- Zentropa International Sweden
Release Date:Apr 16, 2021
Duration:2 h 10 m
Tagline:What about love when you have three months to live ?
Awards
Kosmorama, Trondheim Internasjonale Filmfestival
• 3 Wins & 8 Nominations
Amanda Awards, Norway
• 2 Wins & 8 Nominations
Berlin International Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
