Hedda Stiernstedt goes back in time.

One More Time is Groundhog Day for women. Thank you, good night.

Actually let’s talk about it more. One More Time is clearly a film for forty year old women, but it wasn’t half bad. The directorial debut of Jonatan Etzler, One More Time stars Hedda Stiernstedt as Amelia, a woman hitting her 40th birthday and realizing what a lot of people probably do when they hit 40. They don’t have any friends, they have a lot of regrets from high school, and what have they done with their lives? All of this comes to a head when Amelia gets hit by a bus and dies.

Nah I’m just kidding. She wakes up to her 18th birthday party, the day she remembers as the best day of her glory years. Her parents are young. She is still friends with Moa (Elinor Silfversparre). Her hunky high school boyfriend Max (Maxwell Cunningham) is still both hunky and her boyfriend. Amelia’s initial thought is that this is a gift, a chance to go back and relive her past life. Only it becomes less of a gift and more of a curse when she realizes that the day is repeating. Possibly forever.

It also serves as a reminder of the things Amelia forgot since high school, the not so great parts like her gradual distancing from friend Fiona (Miriam Ingrid), the poor treatment of some fellow classmates, and her nonchalant participation in her group history report on Hinduism. Also Amelia is kind of an asshole as a teenager. Big shock.

The film is originally Swedish, and as usual I recommend watching subs over dubs. No offense to the team that did the English voice-overs, but the voices really don’t fit the characters and sound off. Like the terrible English dub of Squid Game, but not quite as bad. There aren’t any special effects in this film, although it’s always funny seeing the movie effect on characters. Amelia is depressedly thinking about her continued aging in the beginning of the film turning 40 despite actress Hedda Stiernstedt, who is 35 in real life, being absolutely gorgeous.

There’s not much else to say about this film. Jonatan Etzler and whoever did casting has a good eye for picking up some side characters who don’t have any acting credits and making them work. Like the Swedish Sean Baker. This film won’t break any molds in cinema, but it’s not a bad hour and a half.

Rating: B+

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