Beck (TV Series) Pojken i glaskulan (2002) User Reviews

Stunning psychologial thriller

[sdx · 7/10 · 3 June 2002]

The plot starts with an autistic mothers tragic death. Soon after, her son is discovered nearby, covered in his mothers blood, and with a heavy object in his hand... This is the beginning of the almost over-obvious murder case that is assigned to Martin Beck and his crew. However, Martins intuition soon leads him to believe that there is more than just the obvious to this case.

If you have watched the other BECK movies, you will notice that this is not the usual action packed BECK movie. However, the plot is more unexpected than the previous ones, and has more of a psychologial tone than usual. Don't get me wrong - this is good, it gives the viewer a deeper insight to most of the characters, and keeps one thinking all the time.

If you like psychological thrillers, and the beck movies, this movie is a must! I find it slightly better than the other beck movies, who are too predictable and boring at times. But Gunvalds way of being makes every BECK movie worth watching, that's for sure :-)

Good movie, but why voice over?

[Bobjork · 7/10 · 24 June 2002]

The movie is one of the better Beck-movies, but why is at least one of the actors a voice over with bad lip sync? I don´t like lip sync! Well, this movie without Persbrandt, wouldn't be a movie. Just like the old Beck-movies. A Beck without Gunvald, is not a Beck...

4 stars (would be 5 if not voice over)

Lip sync

[jottotheone · 8/10 · 15 May 2005]

As an earlier comment to this movie said: Lip sync isn't that good for one of the characters. Bust just one. It's Josef Hillman who is played by a German actor - Hanns Zischler - and dubbed with the voice of a Swedish actor - Fredrik Ohlsson. Otherwise it's OK. The story is OK. What one could wish is that the new "Beck" minis could get a bit more realism in solving the crimes. Now it's just computerized searches that does the work. Not the traditional "flat-foot", surveillance. Still, I can recommend almost all of the movies about Martin Beck. The one I just can't stand is the "Stockholm Marathon" which emanates from one of the original 10 books (#10 "The Terrorists"). That adaptation is just the worse ever. The absolutely best is the one with Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt as Martin Beck - The Man on the Roof, 1967.

Young Rainman in Trouble

[merrywater · 8/10 · 27 September 2015]

A very good episode of the Beck series.

The plot is complicated with certain surprising twists. I would, however, say that the motive here is rather far-fetched: a psychiatrist molests his patient who is a guy of thirteen years suffering from autism. This is supposed to be unraveled by the boy's sudden and persistent drawings of penises.

The mother who is deeply engaged, to the point of prostituting herself to pay the fee to the institution that keeps the guy, at once understands what's going on and invites the psychiatrist to accuse him. The psychiatrist then hits the mother in the head to give her son the blame. Thus the case will be settled: the boy is to young and to ill to be persecuted for killing his mom.

Now, as the boy is completely unable to tell anything except making enigmatic drawings, wouldn't the psychiatrist have had another, simpler choice, by explaining other possible meanings the drawings? For instance, the age of thirteen is the average age for boys to start developing sexual interests. It's not unlikely that this could explain the reason for his eccentric doodling. The alternative of killing the mother is very, so to speak, drastic in comparison.

Otherwise the casting is better than that of the previous Beck movies when Gösta Ekman played Martin Beck. Although Ekman perhaps was the natural choice in the beginning of the 90s, his portrayal of the inspector was, to say the least, too absent minded. Peter Haber interprets the character as a thoughtful, partly introvert person, but still believable. The co-character Gunvald Larsson is also more credible in Mikael Persbrant's interpretation, than in that of the neurotic Rolf Lassgård.

I once attended a live interview of the criminal author Leif G W Persson at a lager book store i Stockholm. He commented on the borderline type of policemen displayed in various contemporary police dramas, with a not so subtle reference to Lassgård: "If a real policeman would get outbursts regularly of this kind, someone would certainly take him in the hand and lead him to the company doctor!"