5/5 Sweet Film - and a slice of Amerixan History
  by D. Kane (Warm Beach, WA USA)
On my mother's side of the family, all 4 of my maternal great-grandparents were
Norwegian. All of them tried homesteading/farming in North Dakota AND Alberta
before moving to the Pacific Northwest to live in a house, on a city lot, and work for wages.

"Banking and farming don't mix" - my relatives who are still out there on the
Great Plains farming live by this bit of folk wisdom - and have for over a hundred years.

The romance in this movie may - or may not - be typical. But when I chase the history of those who emigrated from Norway, I don't know if you could even describe "typical". Chance played a huge role in who met whom, who married whom and settled where ever.

These folks sailed away from Norway ,or Germany, or....into an unknown and uncertain future.

I believe this movie PERFECTLY captures the role played by chance, circumstance,
character, and HARD WORK in settling the West.

Ross Kane



5/5 Two Thumbs and Four Hankies Up!
  by H. S. Wedekind (Pennsylvania, USA)
I'm not going to go into any great detail about SWEET LAND, which is also a very sweet movie, as previous reviewers here have done that already. I just wanted to add my opinion to the 50 others who have come before me.

This was a simple story about two immigrants who grow to learn about and love each other despite the obstacles they have to overcome along the way. This was also an adult romance without any sex, violence, or four-letter-words...and not even one Ford Model-T was blown up...so I think that alone will turn off some people. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD, which we got free from our local library, and were involved in the story and cared about the characters. If that isn't the real test of a movie's entertainment value then I don't know what is. The main characters, Inge (a mail-order-bride from post-WWI Germany) and Olaf (a farmer from Norway), try to marry and begin a life for themselves in 1920 Minnesota but are thwarted by the parish minister, who refuses to marry them, and the townspeople, who still harbor anti-German feelings. It isn't until Olaf stands up to the town banker, who is intent on foreclosing the farm of neighbor and friend Frandsen, that the minds and hearts of the minister and townsfolk are changed.

I think a few reviewers were less than enthusiastic about the movie because they either couldn't understand some of the dialogue (smatterings of Norwegian and German were spoken in the beginning) or thought it was just poorly accented jibberish. I guess they don't remember those old Folgers Coffee commercials starring Mrs. Olsen. "Ja! It's mountain grown. The richest coffee there is." otherwise they'd be less skeptical.

At any rate, I wholeheartedly recommend SWEET LAND to anyone who can appreciate good acting, a believeable story, and beautiful cinematography. One warning: Be sure to have a box of Kleenex handy.

4/5 Love it!
  by Melily (California, USA)
This is a great film, and I love it to pieces. The only reason I wouldn't give this five stars is that a lot of the non-English in it is just gibberish. Even when the actual languages are used, sometimes basic grammatical mistakes are made. If just a little more time had been taken on the non-English languages which are rather prominent in this movie I would enjoy it more. However like I said before this is a really good film in all other ways and I highly recommend it.

5/5 Great movie
  by E. Carr
This is a sweet story about attachment to place as well as people. It's love story is true to life and very touching.

2/5 Well-intentioned Immigrant Saga fails to reach Art House Grandeur
  by Turfseer (New York, N.Y.)
Here's a film that aspires to be included in the ranks of European Art Films but unfortunately doesn't quite make the grade. Before we flashback to the main story, we're treated to two "flash forward" scenes: one set in the 60s when the main character, Inge, buries her husband and another scene twenty or so years later when the grandson buries Inge. Instead of getting right into the story which is set in 1920s Minnestoa, we're treated to quite a bit of slow-paced, unnecessary exposition. When we finally do get to the core of the story, where Inge (well played by Elizabeth Reaser) comes to America, we find out little about the personalities of the characters.

Most of the first half of the movie deals with Inge trying to cope with a hostile community where she barely speaks any English (it's not really explained very clearly, but Inge is a mail-order bride from Norway but she's actually German who's been living in Norway). Her husband-to-be Olaf, is a Norwegian-American who is unable to communicate with her in German (it appears that he can speak Norwegian and so can she--well at least I thought I heard her speak some Norwegian during the film) but they choose not to because the town minister insists that she only speak English. So quite unconvincingly, when they are alone, they never converse in Norwegian which would probably help her to learn English a lot faster.

Reaser does a good job at showing how difficult it is learning a new language and there are some scenes that are fairly compelling as Inge and her hard-working farmer-husband learn to love each other. But beyond that what do we find out about the characters in this film? Well there's Olaf, who's a bit of a Stoic but also a real good guy who saves his best friend's farm by bidding for it at an auction (even though he doesn't have the money!). And of course there's the minister, who is caught up in the anti-German hysteria of the day and gives Inge a real hard time. But of course, he's really not such a bad guy after all because eventually he inexplicably comes to accept her. And in fact, all the neighbors, who at first appear as though they're going to start a witch-hunt against Olaf and his potential bride, suddenly have a change of heart and actually give Olaf the cash to buy his best friend's farm which prevents the family from being evicted.

1920 Minnesota doesn't prove to be much of a bad place after all--not a bad apple amongst the suspicious neighbors who all turn out to collectively have hearts of gold. It's comfortable like a Hallmark Greeting Card but does not bode well for good drama which needs more of a sinister protagonist to keep things interesting. As we step back into 1920, we feel the author only has a superficial sense of what it was like to live back in that time. Oh yes, there's a nice attempt to recreate the look of the period with the old Model-T cars and gramophones but without in-depth characters, the film ultimately proves to be an exercise in sentimental storytelling.