Kiss Me will tear your heart in pieces.

Films with a lesbian theme are often designed to make you root for the women in love, without any reservations. You are certain of the pair from the beginning. Imagine Me and You, a classic movie of this theme, even has you rooting for a marriage to end and an innocent man's heart to be broken.

Kiss Me doesn't romanticize the struggle these people go through. It shows the love, the passion and, most importantly, the pain. The pain of denying who you are and the pain of being betrayed and losing who you thought you were going to spend your life with. Because Kiss Me doesn't take these things lightly, my heart was breaking for each of the characters. As the story progresses with beauty and grace and without the rushed feeling of many love at first sight type movies, Mia starts to realize that there is only one way. Despite the sacrifices and the pain, there is one thing she has to do - And I bet you will find yourself realizing it with her.

Apart from the story being told with grace, beauty and a passion for every single character, the film is beautifully shot in the amazing scenery of the Scandinavian countries. An instant classic in movies with a lesbian theme, but a must see for everyone with a for romantic movies.

Wow. Somehow I doubt that words can express how much I have enjoyed watching this film, but I simply must give it a go.

The story starts with the celebration of Lasse and Elisabeth's engagement. Having found each other late in life, Lasse brings two adult children into the marriage, the youngest of which, Oskar, already has connected beautifully with Elisabeth's daughter, Frida. When Lasse's daughter Mia joins the party alongside her fiancé Tim, we immediately feel she is quite the unpolished element in the newly-composed family. It doesn't take very long however before we realize how she is going to blend in.

Mia and Frida's first impressions of each other are exposed solely through body language. The secret looks they throw at each other radiate mutual curiosity, but whereas this curiosity is clearly of the welcoming kind on Frida's part, it is shrouded in a cloud of inexplicable caution on Mia's part. For the time being, that is.

And this is the only scene in which I grew a little too aware of my own willing suspension of disbelief: the first kiss. Five extra minutes to waltz us to the moment where Mia lets her guard down would have been nice. Whereas the kissing scene makes it clear that Mia's initial reluctance to get to know her stepsister was fueled by self-protection and not aversion, it would have been so much more powerful if we also got to see what exactly had caused the sudden turnaround. One might attribute it to Frida's undeniable charm, her dazzling smiles and hypnotic gazes in the scenes running up to that precious moment, but then, she did not exactly save these up for those first private encounters. Rewind and you will notice that Frida wasn't any less endearing the very first moment you laid eyes on her. Or when Mia did, for that matter.

From there on, the storytelling is pretty much flawless: the gradual and natural unraveling of two people who cannot stay away from each other and who eventually have to deal with the obstacles that prevent them from being together permanently. Sure, the final scene does reek a little of Hollywood, but thank god for a film that deals with same sex attraction and that does not end in total disaster! Generally speaking though, the film has quite a realistic feel about it, which probably has a lot to do with the performances. I don't know what it is that makes some couples work on the big screen and others not, but this couple definitely works. Works as in fireworks.

Which brings me to the actors. Ruth Vega Fernandez as the beautiful tormented Mia, Lena Endre as the wise and caring mother, and Krister Henriksson as the-not-so perfect-that-it-almost-makes-him-perfect father are outstanding. But Liv Mjönes's portrayal of Frida is divine. It is impossible not to fall in love with those storytelling eyes, those quirky gestures and priceless renderings of trivial words like 'ja', 'absolut', 'precis' and, a little less everyday, 'vebab.'

The amount of attention given to the subject of sexuality perfectly mirrors European present day society. Especially for the older generation, it's okay to be gay as long as you're far away. If it affects their inner circle, they will need to go through a small crisis before reaching the okay stage. All in all, it is still the case that, despite all the progress that was made, one cannot be gay without being explicitly defined as such.

In short, 'Kyss Mig' is a wonderful film about love in contemporary European society. It is intelligently written and beautifully shot; a feast for the eye and balsam for the soul. Also, did I mention it has Liv Mjönes in it?

Two women meet and start a relationship. One of them is gay and the other bi-sexual. They are both engaged before and keep it all secret. The environment finds out and foreseeable conflicts arise.

It's not uninteresting, but the film follows the book of rules. You also have a suspicion that the two actresses are chosen for their beauty, maybe to not scare away a mainstream audience. The best actor is Krister Henriksson, with quite many dimensions and he's the only one who will remain on some kind of journey after the film has ended.

But everything is a little too beautiful in this Swedish movie. Even the heaviest of feelings are somewhat choreographed. It's all honorable, but nothing more.