A very funny comedy set in the 1960's, about a woman (Eva Röse as Ulla) who wants to drive in rallies, and overcomes many obstacles to do it. Marie Robertson plays Birgitta, who is a painter who really wants to go to France to take lessons, but who gets no encouragement from her farmer Father, but who is good at orienteering, so Ulla eventually persuades her to become her navigator. Ulla works initially for a somewhat sleazy vet, who is played very well by Per Graffman as a man with a sense of his own superiority and entitlement, who objects very unreasonably to Ulla borrowing his PV544 to enter her first rally, which she wins, while he is away with his Jaguar in the city. There is a very funny sequence where Birgitta is slowly trained to overcome motion sickness caused by trying to read (to navigate) while the vehicle is moving fast. Maria Lundqvist is great as Eivor, who runs a diner and sings in a band with Ulla's boyfriend, a local mechanic, his boss, and a local reporter. A contract with the Citroen team terminates after the steering on their car fails. There is a wonderfully funny piece where the team manager says "For you the important thing is to finish, to advertise Citroen, It's not so important to win, you understand?" and Ulla looks blank and says "No" - "Bon" says the Frenchman. Eivor and the local people collect to support the girls, and Birgitta, who has been sent to cooking school by her Father, sells her VW to buy a good engine. They win the qualifying rally for Monte Carlo in a beautiful pink Volvo Amazon. (I once congratulated a Finnish colleague on his classic Amazon, and he said "It's not really classic, it's just old! A couple of months later he got a V70.) This is a really feel-good movie, with great action sequences of REALLY classic cars.
I notice that other reviewers are unreasonably negative, but remember that that is a typical reaction by a certain sort of Swedish person to comedy, or to anything lighthearted.
I notice that other reviewers are unreasonably negative, but remember that that is a typical reaction by a certain sort of Swedish person to comedy, or to anything lighthearted.