For the very concept of Ella Lemhagen’s Patrik, Age 1.5 to work, you must be generous in your assessment of the main characters’ intelligence.  The Swedish film, which will be playing at Minneapolis’ Lagoon Cinema for the remainder of the week, relies on a pivotal yet entirely obvious plot twist so early in its running time that failure to buy into the script’s logic will at best prove a minor irritation in an otherwise well-intentioned family dramedy or at worst pull you out of the film entirely.  For me, the latter occurred.

Göran and Sven are a committed, loving gay couple who move into a small neighborhood filled with the kind of conservative, smug carbon copies that have been occupying the suburbs since Richard Yates’ 1961 novel Revolutionary Road.  Göran is a physician who is moving his practice into town and apparently the driving force behind the couple’s quest for white-picket marital harmony.  Sven brings a bit more reluctance and emotional baggage to this marriage.  He was once married to a woman, has a non-relationship to his daughter, and struggles with drinking and smoking.

Sven and Göran are eager to expand their family, with the movie starting right after the prospective Dads are deemed eligible for adoption.   But with no countries actually willing to offer their children to a homosexual couple, their options grow desperately slim.  When Göran finally receives a letter containing a profile of one “Patrik, age 1.5,” they are eager to accept despite warnings that their son-to-be comes from a troubled family.  To their surprise and dismay, a much older boy also named Patrik finds his way on the dads’ doorstep (conspicuously absent is a social worker to accompany the kid).

Convinced the adoption agency sent them the wrong Patrik, they set out to resolve the mix-up right away.  Adoption officials eventually reveal a clerical error had been made, and Patrik’s profile ought to gave read “Patrik, Age 15.”  Rather than subject him to an indefinite period in government-run foster care, Göran agrees to take in Patrik until another, more accommodating family might be found for him.  Given Patrik’s juvenile record, this news comes much to Sven’s chagrin and ultimately jeopardizes what was once a happy marriage.

What makes the premise behind Patrik, Age 1.5 so difficult to swallow is that at no point do Sven and Göran so much as entertain the most feasible – and actual – explanation behind the adoption Agency’s mix-up.  Perhaps it was fervent denial that inspired the dads’ inability to connect the dots.  Maybe it was sheer stupidity; I am not positive.  What I do know, however, is how transparently Lumgarden (who also wrote the screenplay) intended the future dads’ incredulity to trigger the script’s progression from one milestone to the next, and not vice-versa.

That decision to acquiesce character development for the sake of plot progression continues throughout the movie’s duration, and that is what ultimately robs Patrik, Age 1.5 of its ability to incite laughs and jerk tears with any kind of emotional authenticity.  We are told about Patrik’s “troubled past” and Sven’s reluctance to embrace fatherhood again.  But we are only given such notions, really, because the dialog tells us how to feel.  Apart from resorting to cheap metaphor (the allegedly sober and decidedly unhappy Sven’s late-night escapades to enjoy a drink and a smoke) or utter contrivance (a conveniently placed child video-monitor always manages to capture exactly what Patrik is feeling throughout the movie), very little in the script or the performances give a visceral sense of who these characters are.

It’s really a shame Patrik did not do enough to flesh out its characters.  Some of the ideas presented have a genuine sweetness at their core, and there are points where characters come to the verge of finding closure with a truly bittersweet honesty.  Too eager to wrap up on an unambiguously joyous note, however, the movie rewrites its characters’ motivations in order to attain the kind of happily ever after treacle usually reserved for most American romantic comedies.

Unlike the two moms in the funnier and more moving The Kids are All Right, the characters have no real sense of control or accountability for the decisions they make in light of their circumstances.  With Patrik, every action and reaction from the characters feels predetermined, ostensibly written, and disappointingly tepid.