An Honest Life Review
Director: Mikael Marcimain
Date Created: 2025-07-31 16:41
1.5
An Honest Life Review: Written by Linn Gottfridsson and Joakim Zander and directed by Mikael Marcimain, the new Swedish crime thriller Ett ärligt liv features Simon Lööf as Simon, Nora Rios as Max, alongside Peter Andersson, Nathalie Merchant, Willy Ramnek Petri, Arvid von Heland, Fabian Hedlund, Robin Jurca, among many others. The film is two hours long. It appears at first glance to be a tale of rebellion, self-discovery, and the greys between good and bad. But as the film progresses, it’s apparent that its message is even more complicated — and not necessarily improved.
An Honest Life Review
Set in Lund, a city steeped in politics, Netflix’s An Honest Life is about a young law student, Simon, looking for his place in contradictions. He aspires to be a lawyer but soon finds himself entangled with a radical and enigmatic gang who term themselves “the bandits.” They are not your ordinary thieves — they recite poets, they discuss revolution, and they think that they are fighting a cause. But as the story unfolds, Simon starts questioning whether they are doing it for justice or simply resorting to ideology out of self-interest.
I wish I could have liked this movie better than I did. A naive student pulled into an underground world while questioning his future, is promising. But somewhere along the line, An Honest Life forgets the human element of the film. The characters, especially the would-be revolutionaries, are more cartoonish than actual human creatures. They behave in inexplicable ways and sometimes outright cruelly, and I found myself having trouble keeping myself emotionally invested.
All that being said, the movie An Honest Life is not entirely bad. Visually, it is beautiful. The director uses grainy texture and moody, shadowy lighting, which reflects Simon’s inner turmoil. Some of the shots, especially of the streets of Stockholm and Lund, are breathtaking. The audio is a good fit for the atmosphere as well, heavy and ominous, like Simon’s journey. Good images are, however, not enough to hold up a movie if the story and characters don’t necessarily gel.
Something that annoyed me is that the film tries to say big things about capitalism, poverty, and revolution, but tries to do so in a way that becomes confusing. The outlaws talk about throwing over the apple cart and doing it on behalf of the poor, but a great deal of what they do is more like personal revenge and less like a protest. They kidnap wealthy individuals, to be sure, but they also beat up people who are outside the system that they claim to hate. That disconnect isn’t built as a failure of the group — it just is. As a viewer, I found myself questioning: What is the film actually saying?
I believe that Swedish crime thriller An Honest Life also falters with its lead character. Simon is in almost every scene, but I never quite felt that I knew him. His development from aloof law student to willing co-conspirator happens too quickly and with too little emotional context. Even his passions for Max, the woman who introduces him to the gang, were nascent. I was constantly waiting for more, a fight, a meltdown, a dialogue — but the film glosses over these scenes in the name of slick action and splashy set pieces.
Other than that, however, there were a couple of things about the movie that did succeed. One of the better concepts was the way the group manipulated individuals such as Simon and the ones in his place as pawns — fall men who take the blame and the actual perpetrators escape scot-free. That was so realistic and added a bit of emotional depth to the movie. It was a demonstration of how idealism could be used to manipulate misguided individuals, particularly young people who are searching for a sense of purpose. If the movie had concentrated more on that psychological aspect, it could have been a huge success.
As for the performances, they were not good enough. Simon Lööf, as the lead, was too rigid in most scenes except a few. His facial expressions never changed, and it was hard to make out what was happening with him, even in the most pivotal of scenes. Nora Rios, as Max, was a good presence on the screen, but her character was not stable either. She would sometimes show concern for Simon, and sometimes be cold and calculating, without any reason for anything she was doing.
Swedish Movie An Honest Life Review: Summing Up
All in all, Netflix An Honest Life is a movie that could have been a taut, intense drama of corruption and class, but was a lost cause. It tries to be about something, but its point is drowned out in overly prettified imagery and half-baked character development. I wouldn’t call it an outright failure, but I won’t be advising you to see it either.
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