Show Me Love (2008)

Show Me Love (2008), the English version of Swedish “Fucking Åmål”, is a poignant tale of Agnes, a social misfit, high school outcast, and Elin, the object of Agnes’ affection, in the town of Amal.

Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) and Elin Olssen (Alexandra Dahlström)

The town of Åmål, Sweden, is a small insignificant town where nothing ever happens, where the latest trends are out of date when they get there. Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) is a shy, social misfit, in the town high school. Her only best friend is wheel-chair bound Viktoria (Josefine Nyberg), who only hangs out with her because no-one wants to be stuck with a cripple. She is unpopular, but not unknown. The popular students of the school specifically seek her out and torment her, because she is rumoured to be a lesbian – a rumour perpetuated by them, themselves.

The popular Elin Olssen (Alexandra Dahlström), good-looking girl with a soft heart and a penchant for making chocolate milk, much to chagrin of her “dieting” sister who’s forced to drink it, has a certain "reputation" among boys, despite the fact that she has never actually done “it”. She is also the main object of affection of Johann (Mathias Rust), a popular boy, and Agnes. Living with a single, working mother and a popular sister, Jessica (Erica Carlson) who prefers boys and parties to school and studies, Elin is bored with life.

It all changes on the day of Agnes’ birthday, when Elin and her sister Jessica, decide to attend Agnes’ party as a prank, after having torn up all her invitations in school. That night, only other guest is Viktoria, who after a fight with Agnes leaves, early. Agnes is sad, but sees light when Elin arrives. Elin confesses her “love” and kisses Agnes, then breaks it, calls her a “queer”, and leaves, leaving a very torn-up Agnes behind. Depressed Agnes tries to look for ways to kill herself, but is timely interrupted by her father, who gets chocolate milk for her and we learn that Agnes loves to drink chocolate milk. Meanwhile, at another party Elin, still guilty over hurting Agnes and reeling back from the kiss, gets a little too drunk and throws up in the bathroom, where she is supported by Johann who tries to hit on her. This only increases her guilt and she rushes to Agnes’ house.

By now, Agnes, left completely alone for the night, has finally managed to cut one of her wrists and is in process of cutting another when she yet again interrupted, this time by Elin, who wants to talk. They spend a girls’ night out talking, when Elin mentions that she wants to get out and Agnes immediately agrees to try to hitch a ride, to the nearest city. But the driver of a car sees them making out in the back-seat and promptly kicks them out. Agnes goes home and Elin goes back to the party, where she left her coat.

The next day, Agnes tries to talk to Elin but is blown off by her because she does not want to accept her feelings, or her homosexuality. Elin then formally starts dating Johann, even consummating the relationship leaving Agnes heart-broken, yet again. When Elin finds that Johann, like her sister Jessica and her boyfriend Markus, have no interest in leaving the town or doing anything other than party and have a good time, she starts releasing her feelings for Agnes. Earlier, where Agnes masturbated to Elin’s photo in the yearbook, now she starts doing the same with Agnes’ picture.

Only this time Agnes has decided to get over her and move on – she has no desire to go down the same path again. But Elin decides to take the matters into her own hands and almost drags and locks Agnes in the Girls’ Toilet to get her to listen. She apologizes, and asks Agnes to forgive her. Agnes finally relents, and even agrees to wait until she is ready to come out. Their only problem: it is lunch break and by now most of the girls gave gathered around the bathroom, only to find it’s locked. When her friend and another popular girl, calls out and Elin answers, she understands that it’s Elin in the toilet and since she refuses to come out or open the door, she is “with” someone. By now, the entire school has gathered outside and the headmaster is called to order her to open the door. On the inside, Agnes is getting impatient, (they are trapped in a toilet, for God’s sake!) and tells Elin to come out (mainly because they have no other choice) and agrees to stand by her. Elin takes a deep breath and opens the door.

The "Coming Out"

Up to this scene, the background score has a sad, melancholy tune. As she opens the door however, the music turns upbeat and out comes Elin with “Ta Da!” The students are shocked, when they see Agnes behind her. Elin comes out, figuratively and literally, and takes Agnes’ hand and they walk out, hand-in-hand, with the whole school staring behind them. I was smiling like an idiot – not laughing, mind you – smiling! It was probably the second-best ever “coming out” scene I’ve ever seen, the first would in “Make the Yuletide GAY!” (More on that Later!)

The final scene shows them in Elin’s house where Elin makes chocolate milk for both of them.

The main drawback I had while watching the movie was the print I saw was in Swedish with No Subtitles. It generally isn’t a problem for me, I do watch silent movies and other Indian language movies on cable, I get by with their expressions and acting, and with a fiction writer’s mind (no rolling eyes!) and I deduce the rest. So though I had no idea what was being said, I knew what was going on. It’s a beautiful coming of age, coming-out movie.




I have changed the title of this post, from it's original Fucking Amal because most of the hits this post got were Google searches for "fucking". This movie is a coming-of-age drama of two girls and the "fucking" in then original Swedish title has got nothing to with fucking (as in having sex), but refers to the other usage, as in the fucking ridiculous or fucking idiot.