Stockholm focuses on a criminal named Lars Nystrom, played by Ethan Hawke, who walks into a bank dressed as a cowboy and takes a few of the employees hostage, which includes Bianca Lind, played by Noomi Rapace. He doesn’t demand money but rather uses the situation to demand that his old partner Gunnar Sorensson, played by Mark Strong, be released from prison and brought to the bank. As the situation intensifies, Lars demands that he and Gunnar leave with the hostages, to which the chief of police, played by Christopher Heyerdahl, outright refuses. The plans quickly fall apart and the situation gets worse, bringing Lars to the unfortunate realization he’ll need to kill a hostage to show the police how serious he is.
The film is meant to be a dramatization of the events that lead to the term Stockholm Syndrome, in which a captive falls in love with their captor. Though the film really fails to have anything insightful to say on the subject, or what would lead to such a situation would occur. The romantic relationship in question here is between Hawke and Rapace, which is somewhat baffling here as it’s extremely difficult to believe these two falling in love.
In fact, it’s difficult to say they really have any chemistry whatsoever, and there really aren’t any moments between the two that justifies them ever falling in love at the end. There’s never this moment where a solid connection is established, nor is there anything that really builds up to the moment. It just happens. Yet, when the two speak to each other throughout the movie, it feels as if they’re in two completely different movies.
Hawke spends much of this movie clumsily screaming and shouting to anyone and everyone who will listen to him, mostly to cover for the fact that his character doesn’t know what he’s doing. He feels like Al Pacino’s Sonny Wortzik from Dog Day Afternoon, except with less of a plan and even less motivation for doing the things he does. He’s sloppy, not all that intelligent, and rarely communicates in any other form that doesn’t involve whining. There are times where a lot of this is meant to be played up for laughs, and while Hawke looks like he’s having fun with the role, it’s really difficult to laugh at him.
Rapace, meanwhile, looks completely uninterested in being involved in this movie. She goes through nearly this entire movie with a totally blank expression on her face, other than a scene or two here and there. There are times where she doesn’t even seem to be phased by the robbery, and every time she speaks, it’s almost completely monotone. Every time she and Hawke communicate with one another, they are at two completely different levels of emotion that never seem to sync up.
Mark Strong also completely goes to waste here, though in comparison, he’s probably the strongest of the three leads. However, much of the time he speaks, it involves him and Hawke getting into arguments where they’ll repeatedly tell each other and the hostages how they’re such good friends and colleagues. But it’s all tell with no show. Every time these two speak to each other, it’s riddled with exposition about who they are to each other, and it’s nearly impossible to buy them as having any sort of emotional connection with one another.
The film drags its feet through a brutal 92 minutes that feels like an eternity as characters sit around and have conversations that ultimately go nowhere. The movie really tries to recapture the feel of the awkward-yet-somewhat-funny bank robbery that occurred in Dog Day Afternoon, but it’s strictly awkward and not funny. There’s never any big “Attica” moment nor is tense, dramatic standoff like there was in that movie. There’s no major character development, nor is there anything that’s said or done that really stands out, sans a couple of scenes here and there, including one in which Lars attempts to trick the cops so he can get what he needs.
Stockholm is a total mess. It fails at being an awkward comedy, it fails at being a tense heist drama, and it fails at really having anything insightful to say about the whole concept of Stockholm Syndrome. It takes a talented cast and puts them all to waste, with three leads who feel like they’re not even in the same movie. It is a blatant Dog Day Afternoon retread yet without any of the wit, intensity, or emotion that that film had. There are some moments here and there that are enjoyable enough, but overall this film is just wasted potential.
Recommendation: Avoid It
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