Hallstrom's breakthrough film is a quirky delight, capturing the
surreal strangeness of childhood. Not that many childhoods - even in
the 1950s - were ever as bizarre as this. 12 year-old Ingemar
(Glanzelius) is sent to the country because his mother is terminally
ill. The villagers initially seem like aliens - and he begins to
identify with Laika, the Soviet dog sent into space - but he does find
some kind of place for himself, amidst goings-on he can barely
understand. This is everything feelgood films wish they could be:
witty, perceptive, unsentimental; full of belly laughs, but never
flinching from harshness or horror.
