Ogginoggen (1997) User Reviews

Declines in quality, but overall still worth seeing

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 23 January 2019]

"Ogginoggen" is a Danish Danish-language short film from 1997, so this one is already over 20 years old and it is the last segment of a trilogy directed by Jesper W. Nielsen and written by Anker Li. In terms of length, it is not the shortest or longest entry. Nielsen is still working in the industry today and Danish film buffs may recognize the name. And same can be said about many of the actors appearing in this 40-minute film. Lead actress Potalivo is still a television regular these days and so is Dollerup, the one playing her friend. And then there are Federspiel and Oscarsson, both sadly deceased now, but probably also known to many outside Denmark as they really had long and partially glorious careers and seeing them together as a loving old couple at the dancing event at the end was kinda fun. You could certainly say they stole the show from the kids, even if this was most likely not intended. As for the kids, they were solid either. The trip early on by the two girls is among the film's highlights and even there we get a great deal of male and female nudity and also some implied sexual stuff like a man putting jelly babies into his underpants. Not the wisest decision somehow. Story-wise this is about a girl who hears about her mother's faded love and decides to stay away from boys and not fall in love as a consequence. But when things involving her best friend take an unexpected turn, her priorities may change. So yes, there is the happy ending of course. Probably this is also a good watch for people who like dancing themselves, but even I as somebody with no connection to that hobby liked it overall, even if the ending was a bit exaggerated and over-the-top in my opinion and also a bit forced happy and I think the movie did lose some quality the longer it went. All in all, it is a bit of a close call, but I believe that the positive here is more frequent than the negative and you should watch it. Denmark/Scandinavia have been delivering quality short films for a long time now until this date and they already did back in the 1990s and here is the evidence, even if this film surprisingly did not seem to have garnered any awards attention back then. But this should not keep you from checking it out. It's not forgotten and rewarding enough to spend 40 minutes on.