Trouble 2024 Movie Review
With it being an era of remakes and sequels in the global film industry, the latest Netflix Original happens to be Trouble aka Strul from Sweden. A remake of the hilarious 80s movie, Strul, this time, Trouble has a bumbling and clumsy salesman who finds trouble when he accidentally finds himself in the midst of a murder.
Helmed by Jon Holmberg, the movie stars Filip Berg in the lead role and none other than Swedish star, Eva Melander of ‘Border’ fame as the antagonist. The cast also includes Amy Deasismont, Mans Nathanaelson, Dejan Cukic, Joakim Sallquist and Peter Gardiner.
The action comedy released in October 2024 and follows Berg as Conny, a divorced engineer who hopes to become a pilot one day but is busy picking up extra shifts as a salesman so he can give his daughter riding lessons to compete with her pilot of a step-father. Even if it means delivering appliances and setting them up at customers’ homes even after hours.
Unfortunately for him, one such customer becomes the target of a drug bust gone wrong and the cops arrest Conny as the murderer. His daughter is miserable while his good-for-nothing lawyer is unable to get him out. The only thing Conny knows is that the dying customer needed his phone which is now missing.
However, things start looking up for him when he accidentally comes up across an escape tunnel in prison while the convicts believe he is a pilot who can help them get out of the country. Conny is swept in their schemes as he tries to find the victim’s phone and clear his name.
While the script is pretty strong with hilarious set-ups that should surely elicit laughter, the direction leaves much to be desired. The beginning of Trouble has an old-school execution with a sped-up montage, quirky physical comedy, deadpan humour, dramatic zoom-ins and rock soundtracks. It even has your classic comedy tropes such as the lead listening to music and completely missing the fighting that is going on behind him.
But a little too much time is spent on exposition in the first half to establish the bumbling, clumsy lead. The movie also keeps reiterating that this is a comedy with back-and-forth dialogue as all the characters are confused about what is going on. It gets a little tedious after a while.
It’s as if the lead is constantly at the wrong place at the wrong time throughout the movie which is even referenced directly by the antagonist at one point. We can go as far as to say it’s giving Mr. Bean but way less funnier. And that’s not all as it gets tiring to constantly suspend reality with such ludicrous plot twists like the useless cops, the careless lawyer and the magical escape routes that just fall in Conny’s lap repeatedly.
If there is any consolation, the story picks up with Conny’s prison escape and it keeps going without slowing down for a moment. In that way, Trouble does its best to stay entertaining with a few laughs here and there. Once the chase sequence begins, viewers can get into it and just enjoy the action.
But even if we can forgive the pacing, Trouble messes around with the tone right when we are getting used to the overt slapstick comedy. Whenever the movie gets serious, it also loses all of its comedic execution only for it to return once the action resumes. The constant tonal shift continues till the end of the movie which is at odds with the viewing experience as one doesn’t know whether to laugh or not.
To put it bluntly, Trouble is a hit-or-miss attempt at combining farcical comedy with action but it fails to provide a cohesive experience due to the pacing and confusing tones. Tune in for a chaotic comedy but it is far from a flawless remake or even a standalone comedic masterpiece.
