The Square

Year: 2017

Actors: Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Claes Bang, Terry Notary

Duration: 151 min

In control of everything of which he is in charge making him generally calculating, Christian Nielsen is the chief curator at X-Royal, a modern and contemporary art museum in Stockholm, it housed in one part of the former royal palace. Confidence, which he outwardly possesses in spades, is required to woo potential investors, he up front in an interview that the museum does not have the capital of many of the world's private collectors in bidding for and purchasing the top art. With the current exhibits, like the video series by performance artist Oleg Rogozjin highlighting beasts' relationship to mankind, or the featured exhibit titled "Mirrors and Piles of Gravel" by Julian Gijoni generating little foot traffic, he is placing much effort into an upcoming exhibit by Lola Arias, the collection which she has titled "The Square", which is meant to symbolize equality and thus a place of safety but obligation for anyone in the space. The museum has commissioned a marketing company to come up with a strategy to promote the exhibit. Christian's controlled world has the potential to go horribly off the rails as he tries to juggle many balls, he placing priority on certain of those balls over others. They include: approving the marketing concept for the exhibit, the PR firm trying to come up with something provocative as the artist's statement on the piece is too motherhood in nature to wrap a media strategy around; dealing with the aftermath of what he assumed was a one-night stand with someone he met in a professional context; keeping to his child care responsibilities to his two daughters, Lise and Lilli; and with the help of one of his assistants Michael, trying, somewhat covertly, to get back his wallet, cell phone and cuff-links, which he realized after the fact were stolen in a con and not just merely lost. Added to the problems is one of his artists having a mind of his own at a black tie banquet for the museum.—Huggo

Genre: Action   Comedy   Drama