review once again [Netflix]

Director: Jonathan Etzler | Script: Sofie Forsman, Tove Forsman and Mikael Ljung | Cast: ea | Time to play: 85 minutes | Year: 2023

On her fortieth birthday, Swedish Amelia realizes that she has very little left to live. On her anniversary, she is fired from the clothing store where she works. When Amelia decides to dig up the time capsule she hid as a child, her best friend Fiona’s wishful note of hers disappears. Amelia runs after him and crashes head-on into a passing truck.

Fiona and Amelia have the same birthday, but have gradually drifted apart. Amelia was popular and loved and Fiona a wallflower who found few spectators to listen to her songs. Twenty-two years later, the tables have turned and Fiona is a successful artist and Amelia is still clumsy. After the truck accident, Amelia wakes up on her eighteenth birthday. She now she relives this day over and over again.

This, of course, immediately evokes associations with the modern classic. groundhog day and the writers have also recognized it. To cut the grass off the critics’ feet, they themselves bring up the similarities and let young Fiona and Amelia watch the film with Bill Murray. The eighteenth birthday is slightly different with each reincarnation. Amelia’s best friend, Noa, comes looking for her, she meets her boyfriend Max at her school and the day ends with a birthday party.

Logically, the day goes a little faster each time, because otherwise it will be a very boring sitting. In each variant, Amelia makes different decisions, but due to her increasing speed, they make less and less of an impression. The pace is inconsistent with the enormous consequences that a change in options or perspective can have. Still, it makes Amelia realize that she really did do the wrong thing.

At the center of this is the question of why people can lose sight of each other. Is it the advancement of perception, or are there other reasons why friends who share a birthday, of all things, grow apart? First-time director Jonathan Etzler doesn’t want to make it too heavy and keeps things too light, with jokes about video stores and mansplains. Everyone around eighteen-year-old Amelia looks younger, but the main character is still played by the same actress. This makes for an alienating experience. Etzler’s teen drama is full of open doors, just as the life of a teenager is confusing. Apparently, this also applies to those in their forties.

One more time can be seen in Netflix.