Stream It or Skip It?

Now on Netflix, Diorama is Swedish writer/director Tuva Novotny’s attempt to break down the messy, inconsistent slop of human romantic relationships via contextual and scientific analysis. So yes, it’s a comedy. A comedy of sorts, at least – Novotny uses one doomed fictional marriage as a basis to wonder what the hell is up with people, and why the hell they do what they do, since they so often rebel against their own needs, desires and nature. She cuts the usual tragicomic fodder with whimsical “dioramas” conveying conventional factual wisdom, which is a fresh approach to the relationship dramedy. But does it work?

DIORAMA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Did you know that bonobos are quite promiscuous? Well, you do now. Here, have some footage of homo sapiens’ closest genetic relative smiling and hooting while having threesomes. Neat! This is part of Diorama’s opening salvo about the history of monogamy among humans through the ages, and what follows is a pondering upon the practicality and purpose of such a thing, via the story of Bjorn (David Dencik) and Frida (Pia Tjelta). We meet them while they’re still relatively young 20-somethings, sneaking into a room adjacent to a party for a quickie. They profess their love to each other verbally, then we get a weird skit in which humans are dressed like rodents and a narrator shares scientific facts about how, why and when said rodents do the ol’ procreation promenade.

Then, a black screen. We hear Bjorn and Frida’s voices in the dark as they awkwardly commence intercourse, but are interrupted: “Mommy!” goes a little girl’s voice. A bunch of years have passed. They have three kids. They live in a flat. She works as a schoolteacher and he has an undetermined office job. There’s the usual familial tensions at the dinner table and in the doorway as the kids get ready for school, etc. It’s a grind for Bjorn and Frida, and the other grind – you know, the good grind – has been ground right out of their lives. Another interlude happens somewhere in here, with humans dressed in furry marmoset (or maybe lemur?) costumes, talking about dwindling testosterone levels.

A title card: BOREDOM, it reads. Bjorn still does things for himself, e.g., planning a motorcycle trip across Europe with a buddy. Frida doesn’t. Maybe she should, Bjorn suggests. She goes out with a friend who’s divorced and she talks about how great it is to be a part-time parent. Frida and Bjorn quarrel. Maybe, she suggests, they should go to therapy or try a trial separation or bring a third person to bed with them. He scuttles all those ideas, but when she finally plans a night out with her friends, tells her to let rip and he’ll take care of the kids in the morning, for a change. She bumps into an old friend – an old flame? – who’s tall and handsome where Bjorn is looking more and more like one of those goofy marmosets. Meanwhile, he goes out for drinks with a pal and there’s an age-appropriate woman there who propositions him. He declines. But anytime he wants a little head, just let her know. OK then!

Are Bjorn and Frida doomed? Well, we hear Tammy Wynette singing the song where she spells out the word that happens so frequently in these situations; I think there’s a scene here where an adult in an animal costume spews some statistics about how many marriages actually last. There’s also a sequence in which scientists discuss the physiology of attraction and the differences between men and women – dopamine this and oxytocin that, nature over here and nurture over there, all of which contribute to Bjorn and Frida’s exquisitely common blend of happiness and misery.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Diorama is sort of what Scenes from a Marriage would be like if Bergman had dropped in jokey bits with actors garbed-up like voles, or what Annie Hall would be like if Woody Allen had, well, dropped in jokey bits with actors garbed-up like voles.

Performance Worth Watching: Novotny’s script benefits Tjelta the most. Frida is the film’s most consistent and well-rounded character, and rendered far more sympathetic and complex than the rigid, angry Bjorn.

Memorable Dialogue: A narrator sums up the wonder of the human creature: “We humans, after all, are a fantastic mix of biology and intellect.”

Sex and Skin: A couple of sex scenes with just a small snatch of buttcheek.

Our Take: Novotny isn’t aiming for deep insight on the mysteries of human partnerships with Diorama – the movie’s oddball angle on the subject precludes itself to bemusement more than breakthroughs. She frames Bjorn and Frida as a stereotypical married couple navigating the restlessness of midlife crisis, an overly familiar scenario, in both movies and real life, that’s nonetheless moderately engaging; you’ll likely find yourself siding with Frida for being the more reasonable of the two once their shit goes into a sideways skid towards disaster.

The couple’s story slowly slides from amusing to tragic as they let rip with a vicious Kramer vs. Kramer exchange or two. That leaves the cutaway sequences with the burden of lightening up the whole endeavor, and considering how goofy they are, the conceit doesn’t really work; those moments, more goofy than witty, aim for poetic but land on puzzling. In the spirit of the movie’s sciencey analytical asides, it’s roughly a 60/40 drama/comedy balance, and the comedy feels weak and noncommittal. Tjelta and Dencik are relatively strong dramatic foils, and are perfectly capable of taking us on an emotional journey, but, well, they keep getting interrupted by furries. And that would sap the energy from pretty much any of us.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Credit to Diorama for taking an unusual approach to conventional material, even if it’s never fully functional. Thankfully, the movie has a sturdy dramatic anchor in Tjelta, who makes it worth watching.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.