Stockholm, My Love

There's always a sense of wide-eyed wonder to Mark Cousins's films.

Stockholm, My Love is at its best when at its simplest and most conventional.

Mark Cousins' Stockholm is a contradictory space of both perdition and redemption ... where time does not pass but is layered with memory and experience.

A missed opportunity to present a different view of Sweden.

Cherry's sultry, resonant voice helps along the otherwise wafty narration, which skirts themes of personal trauma before opening out to broader reflections on both the city and the soul.

It is a study of grief suppressed and a personality becalmed.

Stockholm, My Love is an interesting experiment for Cousins' and Cherry. However, it does a far better job of demonstrating the talents of the latter and highlights the limits of the former.

As ever, Cousins draws on an impressive range of influences, but this feels more accessible than some of his earlier odysseys.

Filled with beautiful sights and plaintive music that includes Cherry's own compositions this is a melancholy symphony of images and emotions.

I am usually a fan of Cousins's curious projects, filmed ingeniously on near-zero budgets, but the thin gruel of this film failed to resonate with me.

At times, it feels like an upmarket municipal tourist video, shot in the style of Chris Marker or Patrick Keiller. It's a soothing experience, though, and one that certainly highlights the beauty of the city it is showcasing.