User Reviews

As the British Board of Film Classification rating appeared on the screen, I heard one of the other people in the audience exclaim "Contains strong sex?!" Well what did she expect of a film called 'Call Girl'? It's based upon real-life events in Sweden during the 1970s. Two juvenile delinquent teenage girls nightly escape from their free-and-easy reform school to sample the fast-paced life of, erm, Stockholm. Eventually they are drawn in the world of pimp Dagmar Glans, who soon has them servicing her client list of top-flight judges and politicians (she's a sort of 1970s' Swedish version of Cynthia Payne, although Payne, as far as I'm aware, was never suspected of pimping under-age girls). Meanwhile a young(ish) police officer charged with investigating Glans finds his efforts stymied by shadowy figures, in an entirely predictable fashion.

This film caused a stir in Sweden for suggesting that Olof Palme, a Prime Minister assassinated in 1986, was one of Glans' clients. But for anyone not versed in Swedish politics that main sensational point is wasted. Instead the viewer watches a rather rambling production which, while diverting enough, feels a bit flabby (like many of Glans' clients, ho ho ho). And those who like their plot lines tied off neatly will be frustrated, as by the end of the film a number of questions still haven't been answered: precisely why were the secret services so keen to interfere in the police investigation? Why did that nasty thing happen to the police officer? What happened to the girl on the bus? But there's an enjoyable central performance from Pernilla August as the tough-as-nails old boot Glans, and it's nice to see some real-life Scandi-crime rather than the often substandard fictional stuff that's spreading across television at the moment. However, I have to question whether a film about the sexual exploitation of young girls needed to feature quite so many topless shots of them...

Swedish movies have been very difficult to find in USA after Bergman retirement, several years ago, but after the incredible international success of the "Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo" trilogy; Scandinavian cinema is (hopefully ) coming back to these shores.

While "Girl with the Dragoon tattoo" started a heavy criticism on Swedish seemly perfect Government and Society; "CALL GIRL" is a frontal attack to an obviously two faced society with "double standard" public functionaries.

"CALL GIRL" in an almost documentary style tells the real events (with some name and time-line changes) that almost destroy Sweden political system the seventies.

Upon Secret Service discovery (due to espionage suspicions) of several very high level ministries linked to a prostitution ring; investigation evolves to find out that almost every big political figure was involved too.

The ring was run by Dagmar Galns (the excellent Pernilla August). The parallel story of two adolescent girls, recruited by her slow down the movie; but lets us see the other side of the equation; get acquainted with prostitutes and their customers, abusers or exploiters.

Surprisingly, the portrait of Glans is ambiguous; she is shown as an intelligent, workaholic (she works same as her girls), charismatic but abusive woman. Her followers, describe her as a savior (in that times rights for women and equal job opportunity were not granted).

In the end, Glans, her girls, the two adolescent and the police trying to do their job, are just innocent bystanders. The real wolves are the corrupt and/or cowards politicians and government officials, using their power to cleanup their images sacrificing human lives in the process.

The ending as you can guess; is not happy; but still it is a must see movie.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to review this movie because I walked out after an hour, something I rarely do. (Usually if I'm not enjoying a film, I fall asleep.)

The current IMDb rating is too high.

Something went wrong with the exposition in this movie. After a while I was able to discern that the story involves a troubled and promiscuous teenager abandoned by her mother at a relaxed juvenile residence. For reasons that were unexplained in the movie, the young residents were allowed to do what they wanted, and come and go as they pleased. Of course, they all went to Stockholm, and got into trouble. (Is this realistic? What kind of state-run facility was this exactly?)

At some point she blithely and stupidly got caught up in a sex network of some kind involving an older guy and then a group of older people. (Who were the men with Glans?) They got these girls drunk and had sex with them. This is pedophile rape, and a rather powerful scene, but the movie doesn't really dwell on it. The event doesn't seem to bother the girl at all.

You have to give the moviegoer some reason to care about what happens. A movie should have a hero, or antihero, of some kind. I thought she was it, but I developed little sympathy for her, even though we were shown some of her back story. I understand that girls just want to have fun, and need some cash now and again, but what is in it for the moviegoer? There seemed to be no insights, no entertainment value.

The rest of the plot was difficult to follow (at least for the first hour). For the life of me, I couldn't quite put the pieces together. It didn't help that the filmmaker lingered a little too long on details and activities that seemed corollary and unnecessary.

From what I could gather, there was a woman (lesbian?) running an unsophisticated prostitution ring involving several different people, a few Swedish politicians (who?), including some enacting a bill to decriminalize incest (?), Polish diplomats who have sex in their offices (?), security officials, an investigator and so on. The investigator is tasked with investigating the prostitution ring; he does it by creeping up the stairs and listening through the door.

The seduction and sex scenes were squalid.

Almost everyone seemed to be constantly smoking. Endless shots of people sitting around, languidly smoking. For me, smoking is usually somewhat disgusting to watch; here we see gratuitous tobacco abuse in every scene. Were the Swedes such heavy smokers back then?

Much of the action takes place at night, or in the rain, or indoors in rather decrepit, cheap-looking buildings. There was nothing here for the eye.

I suppose this might be a movie about the horrors of ultra-liberalism in Sweden in the 1970s and moral corruption in Swedish politics at the time. If so, it wasn't (for at least the first hour of this movie) really entertaining or easy to follow.

The question that arose for me was this: why should I care what happens to these people?? After two people walked out, I realised I didn't care, so I walked out as well.

Once in a while you encounter one of these movies that is honest and true, this movie surely is. This results in mixed reviews of course as the normal Hollywood addicts expect a happy end, lots of effects, unreal acting and a plot from the book. In this case the plot is from the book, but then is not twisted to please the mass audience, but reflects quite well the true events, as the book and this movie are based on real events. The story has several layers, more than enough to scare the normal audience, and also depicts the seventies as they were. And yes, everybody was smoking in these times and yes, nudity was and is normal when you are not raised in that superficially precocious country with 50 States. Too bad of course of the missing scene with Olof Palme, cut out by the director to prevent being sued by his son, but this is more than made up by the true characters that are human and multi-dimensional for a change, although less easy to identify with for the people with not too much fantasy. I also like the time taken to deepen the characters and not rushing through the main plot, nice and slow, we are looking to a movie to spend our time and be touched, not only to come closer to death.

Swedish thriller regarding prostitutes and politicians in the Seventies, which caused quite a stir in its own country due to its suggestion that a popular prime minister of that era engaged in secret sexual hook-ups with underage girls who were forced into this sleazy business. Though in truth the movie only briefly touches upon that particular subject, it's no surprise many Swedes would take offense at the rather bleak and harsh view Call Girl offers of the political arena of the day and its subversive fascination with young female flesh, as seen through the eyes of a troubled teenage girl, locked away in a juvenile rehabilitation center. As she escapes her confinement she and her friend soon meet up with all the wrong people and are ushered into a world of glitter and power where they can have whatever they want, but for a price. Under the "care" of an unscrupulous older woman, a terrifying role by Pernilla August (once Anakin's warm and caring mum), she finds herself landing the job of underage hooker, being shipped from one dirty old powerful man to the other, seemingly with no hope of escape. Meanwhile, a political news reporter gets wind of the whole affair and means to expose it, but finds himself intimidated by the agents of the powers-that-be at every turn, until there is no way out but death or victory. Call Girl cannot be denied to be a gutsy movie, handling a sensitive topic with nerve and bravery, but there's various elements against either enjoying it as a thriller or taking its contents too seriously. For one thing, there is the excessive running time of 140 minutes, which surely could have been shorter to make for a more compelling film, since several scenes of political corruption and debauchery, heroic investigative journalism and plenty of bare boobs feel redundant. For another, the main girl the movie revolves around is a rather stupid, obnoxious and spoiled young cow, making one stupid decision after the other to predictable effects, making it hard to really care about her fate since she so obviously did everything to deserve it. Though the ice cold, wholesomely disturbing role by August and the shocking, uncompromising climax make up for it quite a bit, it's not enough to make the movie feel like its overstaying its welcome, while appearing to warn teenagers to behave and stay away from strangers a little too overtly.

Very realistic 70's style Swedish movie. It has a clear message, don't mess with mafia. I liked it so much as I was watching the film with the family so their argument was Dagmar and the rest of the mobster hierarchy will be judged by the court and incarcerated in the jail and I said hell no, they won't as there are so many guidelines they won't since the beginning. The film is not about pimps, it's about very influential madam and the politicians even ministers who use her services. It's so clear when you immerse deep into the synopsis of the movie. A little thing on the beginning is they start to decriminalize sex activities, it's mentioned those who did offenses of having a sex with a minor will serve only up to two (2) years in prison so they push water at it's mill. Also John is badly beaten hence before he noticed, secret service which is above him trims the sound tapes so he can't get a clear proof against the criminals. When Dagmar was brought to investigation she acts proudly and fearlessly. She talks with John like he is her client not like a police agent he used to be. John's college is involved as he notices it when he verbally attacked Iris so he hit him in the face. Later on in the vehicle college said you're at your own which is a clear evidence no one will beat Dahmar and the rest of the crew. The part which is so clear, Iris is in the hotel but her client isn't shown, on the next scene is the president of the social democratic party so we know it's him. Notice in the beginning of the film it's mentioned there are seven (7) more days until the election day and we hear his speech where you can apprehend he and his party are influential. The last part when you know Dagmar is a clear winner is when the John is killed and from the beginning they said few times secret service knows everything.

From a view of the technicalities movie is a little of bit longer, it could've been shorten 30 minutes and all the synopsis would fit. The part where girls are scared out of parent's reaction is very unlikely to happened in real as they are in the orphanage so they rarely see their parents and parents have no authority.

The main reason for the excellent grade is the movie ending as it was expected. Since the beginning they gave us evidences and we had to think what will happened so it's one of the movies when you think while watching, you know the end.