Show Me Love

Fucking Åmål, AKA Show me Love is one of the best-known films to come out of Sweden in recent years.

The story concerns Agnes Ahlberg, a young lesbian who has recently moved to the sleepy Swedish town of Åmål with her family. Agnes goes to school in the local High School (locally known as "gymnasium"), where her only friend is a wheelchair-bound girl named Viktoria. But Agnes dreams of a better life and spends her days pining for the school's most popular girl, Elin Olsson.

When Agnes' parents decide to throw a sixteenth-birthday party without consulting her, Agnes invites only Viktoria, but Elin and her older sister Jessica crash the party, unbeknownst to Agnes. While there, Jessica dares Elin to kiss Agnes on the lips--and is revolted when Elin does so. Elin enjoys the kiss, but Agnes--who didn't know of the dare--is left feeling hurt and confused.

Elin soon starts to feel remorse, and decides to apologize. The two start to strike up a relationship, but Elin worries that Jessica won't accept her, and instead invents a romance with Unlucky Everydude Johan, best friend of Jessica's loser boyfriend Markus.

The movie is famous for having gone right up against Titanic in its native country, and sweeping the Guldbagges (the Swedish Academy Awards).


 * Aggressive Categorism: Markus is the obvious case, with his inane rant about how women can't possibly understand cellphones and men can't possibly understand makeup. However, it's implied that the people in general are just as narrow-minded, they just don't flaunt it like he does. Life in a small town is hell.
 * Alpha Bitch: Camilla.
 * The Bet: The whole relationship between Agnes and Elin starts when Elin kisses Agnes, on a bet from Jessica.
 * Big Damn Kiss:
 * Censored Title: Almost nowhere outside of Sweden used the original title. In Swedish, the word "fucking" is used exclusively as a curse-word. In English, it would be interpreted as if the movie was about intercourse.
 * Closet Key: Agnes for Elin, possibly.
 * Coming Out Story: For both girls.
 * Crazy Jealous Guy: Jessica has to break up a fight between Markus and another boy who was trying to chat her up
 * Crowning Moment of Funny:


 * Which is followed immediately by
 * "I want to do drugs!!"
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: "You're not ordinary."
 * Daddy's Girl: Agnes.
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: Agnes masturbates to Elin's class photo. it's implied that Elin does this to Agnes' photo as well.
 * Double Entendre: The kids chanting for Elin to "come out" of the bathroom
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Markus spends some time comparing the size of his phone to other guys'.
 * They brag about how small their phones are.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Johan.
 * Doting Parent: Agnes' father doesn't tend to get it right, but he adores her.
 * Emo Teen: Both Elin and Agnes have their moments.
 * Erotic Dream / Homoerotic Dream: Elin has one of these about Agnes the night after they kiss.
 * Gayngst: Agnes. So. Much.
 * Freud Was Right: Lesbian Agnes is much closer to her father than to her mother.
 * Girls Love
 * Heteronormative Crusader: Viktoria chose to assume this role, harassing her former friend Agnes for being homosexual. It's all an openly calculated plot designed to use homophobia as a means to gain popularity...
 * Ho Yay: This troper can't be the only one who saw it when Johan and Markus fought in the locker room.
 * If It's You It's Okay: While Agnes is a lesbian, Elin hasn't shown any attraction to any other females - Agnes is quite possibly her first and only girl.
 * It is quite common for people to date a lot or not at all before figuring they are gay. So, Elin is basically a wait-and-see case.
 * Especially since she's fourteen years old.
 * Interrupted Suicide: Elin comes to apologise to Agnes while Agnes is in the middle of trying to slit her wrists with a safety razor.
 * Intertwined Fingers:
 * Lampshade Hanging: During the hitchhiking scene,
 * Lipstick Lesbian: Elin, kind of.
 * Love Confession:
 * Love Triangle: Agnes-Elin-Johan.
 * Market-Based Title (in addition to the two mentioned already, we have Raus aus Åmål for Germany and Láska je láska for Czech Republic and Slovakia)
 * Now What?: The ending deliberately leaves many plot threads hanging (like )
 * Puppy Dog Eyes: Elin pulls them out trying to convince Jessica to go to Agnes' party, and again when trying to convince Agnes to go to Camilla's party.
 * Really Gets Around: everyone thinks this about Elin, and Johan's surprised when she's actually a virgin.
 * Romantic False Lead: Averted with Johan who is actually a nice guy who genuinely cares for Elin.
 * Romantic Runner-Up: Johan, who Elin dates, sleeps with,
 * Schoolgirl Lesbians: Agnes and Elin.
 * Small Town Boredom: Elin, hardcore.
 * Smitten Teenage Girl: Agnes and Elin barely know each other at the start of the film, but Agnes is still writing poetry about her and writing her name in her books.
 * Spurned Into Suicide: Agnes over Elin's cruelty to her. It's not really a wholehearted attempt, and Elin interrupts it.
 * If she intended to commit sucide, then she was doing it wrong. It was more like emo-cutting herself, to balance off emotional pain with the physical one. I don't know the term for it.
 * Take It to the Bridge: It isn't until Elin and Agnes get to the bridge that they really get talking,
 * Title Drop: "Why do we have to live in fucking hell dick Åmål?" or words to that effect.
 * Elin drops the title exactly in the bridge scene.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Agnes and Elin.
 * Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After drinking most of a bottle of wine (straight out of the bottle) at the Wild Teen Party, Elin runs to the bathroom and pukes into the toilet, in close-up.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: At her unwanted party, Agnes throws a fit at Viktoria, insulting her and even picking on her because she's disabled. Her parents call her out on it, and she later tries to apologize. Viktoria refuse to forgive her, mostly because it's true what Agnes said: They never liked each other, and they both knew it. They were "friends" because no-one else wanted them.
 * Wild Teen Party: The party Elin and Jessica attend early on.
 * Window Pain: Elin, wanting to apologise to Agnes, tosses pebbles at her window. The first time she does so, there's no incident, but later on in the film when she does the same thing again, she breaks the window.
 * You Are Grounded: Elin and Jessica are grounded on the night of the party, and pay precisely as much attention to their grounding as one might expect.