S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+6
Entertainment
+4
Rewatchability
+3
CastBertil Guve, Pernilla Allwin, Ewa Fröling, Jan Malmsjö
StreamingMax, Criterion Channel, Plex
S.W.’s Verdict
Bergman disguises his most personal film as a Christmas story and then slowly peels the warmth away until you are standing in a cold room with a bishop who believes suffering is educational. The children see everything. The adults explain nothing. The theatrical cut moves at a pace Bergman rarely allowed himself, and the result is his most accessible work, which is still not particularly accessible.