Emma Cragg’s review published on Letterboxd:
Thanks to the Tyneside Cinema I got the chance to see this year's Palme d'Or winner months before its official release. I didn't know too much about it but the description piqued my interest.
It was a promising start. There were two strong themes being explored; freedom of speech and morality. These were interwoven through stories surrounding the professional and personal life of Christian, the artistic director of Stockholm's modern art museum. It was immediately clear that the audience was there to be challenged. With every decision Christian had to make I asked myself - what would I have done? I was engrossed.
About two thirds of the way through, after probably the most shocking sequence of the film, things started to unravel. The thread of the film got lost and it became a series of disjointed scenes loosely held together by their connection to our leading man. This was disappointing and unfortunately that's the overall feeling I took away from the film. While the themes and ideas were thought provoking sadly the execution let them down.