A gay married couple (Torkel Petersson and Gustaf Skarsgård) move into a ticky-tacky planned Swedish neighborhood where they encounter homophobia. Worse, their attempt to adopt a toddler goes awry — quite improbably — when they're given instead Patrik (Thomas Ljungman), a 15-year-old thug with a proud history of gay bashing.
Deftly expanded from a stage play, Ella Lemhagen's film goes where you expect it to, toward togetherness and understanding. Still, Patrik Age 1.5 is hard to dislike: it's so sincerely good-willed, and the performances are low-key and terrific, especially Skarsgård as the more big-hearted of the gay marrieds.
No surprise that this benign Swedish feature is gobbling up audience awards at gay-and-lesbian film festivals.
