TUESDAY CLUB/ TISDAGSKLUBBEN

Sweden, 2022, 103 minutes, Colour.

Marie Richardson, Peter Stormare, Carina M Johansson.

Directed by Annika Appelin.

A film for those in middle age, later middle-aged perhaps.

Marie Richardson is Karen, married for 40 years, a daughter approaching 40. Early in the marriage, she gave up her ambitions to be a cook and caterer. Now she is seen preparing a party for the 40^th anniversary celebration.

All going happily until Karen chances to see a text for her husband which indicates he is having an affair. As he is doing a stunting climbing, she shows in the photo and he falls, injuring himself, going to hospital. Karen is alarmed, does not tell anybody the truth. (She finds herself in something of a situation similar to Emma Thompson’s character in Good Luck to you, Leo Grand.)

She has a good friend from school days, Pia, and by chance encounters another friend whom she has not seen for years, Monika. The three women bond, and Monika takes Karen to a fine restaurant and they in roll in a cooking course given by the chef.

Karen is attracted to the chef and he to her. There are various complications, Monika befriending Karen’s daughter was rather alienated from her mother, a 40^th birthday party, the daughter seeing her going off with the chef, and then, even more disillusioned, seeing her father and his girlfriend. The touch of farce if it weren’t so serious.

Greater honesty, the truth, and a final wedding celebration and catering, Karen’s husband and his girlfriend, and she then happily kissing the chef.

Serious themes about relationships, long marriages and disillusionment, parent daughter relationships, affairs, truth, new beginnings.

1. The title, cooking, the friends gathering together, catering, friendship?
2. Swedish city life, homes, apartments, restaurants, entertainment, stables and dressage? The musical score?
3. A film for middle-aged, older audiences. For women? For men? For those in their early 40s?
4. The introduction to Karin, age 60, working in the kitchen, preparing the party, 40 years of marriage to Sten, Frederica turning 40 and unwilling to have a party? The friendship with Pia? The guests arriving, the enjoyment of the meal, Sten and his boasting, climbing, Karin and the text message, the photo, his affair, showing it to him, his collapse, injuries, to hospital?
5. The effect on Karin, 40 years of devotion, the shock of the affair, not telling anyone?
6. Her friendship with Pia, not confiding in her? The encounter with Monika, memories of the past, Karin upset, the invitation to dinner, returning home, alone, deciding to go, the taxi, the hotel and diner, enjoying the meal in its detail, the introduction of the chef? His reputation, Karin looking at him?
7. The chef, offering a course, the three women and enrolling, Pia having to give up her swimming Tuesday, the beginnings of the Tuesday Club? Going to the session with the chef, his severe attitude, Karin and her harsh words towards him, but giving him a second chance, the return, preparing the meals, her friends, the gay couple, the heavy young man, the details of the training? Karin kissing the chef? Going home, the consequences?
8. Sten in hospital, recovering, Karin not going to see him? Back at home, looking after him, his demands for sauce and serviettes? Not taking the call from the chef?
9. Frederica, age, with the horses, bonding with her father, resentments towards her mother, not being friendly with her mother? The later outburst at the party, seeing her mother and the chef, her interruption about lack of love? Then the apology, her seeing her father, acknowledging her mother’s care for her? The decision to have the party, the encounter with Monika, Monika becoming an alternate mother, the catering, the line dancing, the young man from the course, enjoying the situation?
10. Karin, the relationship with the chef, the kisses, breaking it off, at each side of the door? His message that he was going to Japan?
11. The party for Frederic, the chef and his presence, the interlude? Sten and the woman from the supermarket?
12. The aftermath, the women deciding to do the catering, the plan, Monika’s mother, her death, the Finance? Going to the mansion, the details of the catering?
13. The chef, his return, the bonding with Karin? Karin packing her husband’s clothes, in the wheelchair, delivering him to Ingela?
14. The finale, the wedding celebration, Sten and Ingela, everybody present, happy futures? Karin and the chef?