Patrik, Age 1.5

Patrik, Age 1.5 (2008) is a Swedish comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, built on one tiny clerical mistake. Göran and Sven have finally been approved to adopt and are waiting for a toddler of eighteen months. A stray comma in the paperwork sends them Patrik instead — fifteen years old, a juvenile record, and no love for gay men.

The couple has just moved to a tidy suburb where the neighbours smile and gossip in the same breath. Now there's a teenager on the doorstep who wants to be there even less than they know what to do with him. Göran and Sven's marriage starts to buckle, Patrik snaps back at everyone, and yet something genuine slowly grows between the gardener-husband and the difficult kid. Gustaf Skarsgård keeps the whole thing balanced on the line between funny and aching.

Director Ella Lemhagen adapted Michael Druker's play with no sermons and a dry Scandinavian wit. It suits anyone who likes warm films about unconventional families, the kind that make you laugh with a lump in your throat. Stream Patrik, Age 1.5 (2008) online on iFILM.