Time: 101 Minutes
Age Rating: PG – Sexual references
Cast:
Anton Glanzelius as Ingemar
Tomas von Brömssen as Uncle Gunnar
Melinda Kinnaman as Saga
Anki Lidén as Ingemar’s mother
Manfred Serner as Erik
Lennart Hjulström as The artist
Ing-Marie Carlsson as Berit
Director: Lasse Hallström

I saw this movie at the local film society not knowing anything about it going in, though I did hear that it was a Swedish film that was well liked. However, I wasn’t into it that much and only found it to be just fine.

My Life as a Dog is an earnest, honest and offbeat coming of age film about its protagonist going through some tough times and coming to terms with different circumstances. Unfortunately, like most coming of age movies, it didn’t click with me. I found it to be very repetitive, especially as it moved along, and the pacing wasn’t the best. The story itself was rather predictable and this sort of story has been done before, but I also couldn’t get emotionally invested in it, and it wasn’t helped that it was hard to root for the lead character.

The acting from everyone is good, most notably Anton Glanzelius as protagonist Ingemar who delivers a subtle and believable performance. In fact, all the child performances are really good, especially from Melinda Kinnaman

My Life as a Dog is an okay and bittersweet coming of age which is elevated by some good performances.