Filip Hammar and Fredrik Wikingsson are well-known Swedish television comedians. Known as Filip and Fredrik, their raucous brand of humor leads Swedes to either love them or hate them. My guess is that many people in the latter category will have more respect for the duo after seeing The Last Journey (Den sista resan).
Filip’s father, Lars Hammar, was a beloved teacher of high school French. A true Francophile, he loved everything French: the beauty of the French countryside, French food, French music, French literature, the French character. He passed this on to his students, even singing and dancing in class. He was also kind to the students, helping them through difficult periods in their lives. Then he retired. And now, fourteen years later, he is listless. He just sits in his armchair and does nothing.
Every summer, Lars used to pile his family into an orange Renault 4 and take them on a road trip across France to Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur. It was happy times. Now it is 2022 and Filip gets the idea that if he can recreate such a road trip, maybe his father will regain his love of life. Filip buys an old orange Renault 4 and with the help of his mother, Tiina, bullies Lars into leaving Sweden for France. Fredrik accompanies them. The trip does not begin well. Lars falls in a hotel and has to spend a couple weeks in a hospital. Should they give up and turn back? Tiina comes down to take care of her husband and insists that Lars, Filip and Fredrik keep going. Sometimes Filip’s attempts to remind his father of the good times past do work and sometimes they don’t.
My favorite part of The Last Journey has to do with Lars’ appreciation of the French version of road rage. Two drivers will become angry because one cuts the other off or one driver bumps into someone else’s car. The two drivers stop, get out, yell at each other, return to their cars and drive away. (As someone who has lived a long time in France, I can attest to this pattern of behavior.) Filip and Fredrik get the idea to stage such a confrontation without Lars’ knowledge. They hire a troupe of French actors, explain the situation and go through rehearsals. With the help of the owners of a café, they sit Lars at an outdoor table by the street. Out of sight, Fredrik, using a walkie-talkie, directs first one car to leave and then a second car. They stop in front of Lars. The drivers, a woman and a man, get out and yell at each other. The woman slaps the man. Then they return to their cars and drive away. Lars loves it.
The film culminates on a beach that Lars has chosen for his ashes to be spread. Lars and Fredrik have created a wonderful surprise for Lars, that is both moving and delightful. This is a father-son relationship at its best.
By the way, in 2016, Filip and Fredrik made a documentary, In Trumpland with Filip and Fredrik, in which they visited people who thought Donald Trump was their savior and that a true reading of the Bible makes it clear that a woman should never be president of the United States.
