So as the movie starts out, it’s an old man sitting in his study, writing in his diary or whatever, and even though I knew it was an Ingmar Bergman joint, I was kind of mentally thinking of it as a Dreyer movie along the lines of Gertrud or Ordet. Which lasted until the first dream sequence, full of striking surreal imagery and chilling creepiness. Oh yeah, this is Bergman.

So in structure, this is a road trip movie. An elderly doctor is being given an award of some sort, and is driving to the city where that ceremony (in which, it turns out, he is given a silly hat) will happen. His daughter-in-law, who has been staying with him, goes with, and along the way they pick up various passengers (a trio of yutes, and briefly a squabbling married couple).

Fundamentally this is a movie about age and the weight of the past; the road journey corresponds to a journey through his life, with locations along the way bringing back memories of his past, in flashbacks and dream sequences and just straight-up conversation. It’s very much the story of an old man confronting and re-evaluating his life.

The movie is loaded up with symbolism — if you ever go back to high school and have to write an essay about symbolism in a movie, pick this one — and pretty much every part of it works on multiple levels. Including, fortunately, the straight-up obvious level: The characters are interesting, the story moves along briskly, and of course the visuals are stunning.

This is another really strong one.