One More Time Review: The Swedish rom-com is written by Tove Forsman and Sofie Forsman (Young Royals, The Playlist) from the idea by Mikael Ljung. It is directed by Jonatan Etzler and produced by Eleonor Sager under the banner of Breakable Films.
The cast of the film includes Hedda Stiernstedt as Amelia, Maxwell Cunningham as Max, Elinor Silfversparre as Moa, Miriam Ingrid as Fiona, Per Fritzell, Vanna Rosenberg, Ahmed Berhan as Arez, Tove Edfeldt, David Tainton and others.
Netflix’s description of the series reads:
On her 40th birthday, Amelia makes a fateful wish to be 18 again back in 2002 but soon regrets it when she’s stuck reliving the day over and over again
-One More Time Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
What would you do if you had the chance to go back to your best birthday ever, whatever age that might be? Well, it sounds great but what if you had to relive the same exact day in a continuous loop? One is bound to lose their mind in that case. This is the story of Amelia, who has just turned 40 but is living a lonesome life and even gets fired from the only job she has been holding onto.
With no one by her side, she often thinks about her high school days when she was the most popular girl, the one that everyone wanted to be or hang out with. She then comes across one of her long-lost friends, with whom she gradually departed in her teenage years. The strange thing is that they both share the same birthday & even celebrated many together, as a kid.
While thinking about Fiona & how they even buried a time capsule to open as adults, Amelia gets struck by a truck & falls into the 18th birthday time loop. Every time she wakes up, it’s the same scene of her parents singing the Birthday song to her. At first few times, she tries to relive her best birthday but everything gets repetitive soon.
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What felt quite realistic about the film, despite its fantasy-backed plot, is how Amelia is not the cliche character that just disposes of her entire personality to become goody two shoes & go back to the present. How she does try to do good things for the people she cares about but soon goes back to her actual self or even meaner side, when things dont turn back – is pretty apt.
The film shows that changing the past won’t undo all of your misdeeds & bring back all the genuine people to you. Instead, you have to make an effort to make amends regardless of how bad you have been in the past. That’s the learning lesson – to grow & learn from your past mistakes & not make everything disappear to become a saint.
On a side note, Miriam Ingrid who plays the character of Fiona looks uncannily similar to Winona Ryder and makes you think that you are watching young Ryder on the screen. Coming back to the story, I wish there was more about why Amelia & Fiona fall apart from each other when they were such close friends. It would give much depth to the story and makes it easier to empathize with their relationship.
One More Time Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, it is a quick and good watch that you can tune into tonight or at the weekend. The music used in the film might make you feel nostalgic and take you back to the 2000s. Also, what sets this film apart is despite having some fantasy elements, the way to go back to the present was quite simple & funnily tragic.
One More Time is available for streaming on Netflix.
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