By Erin JohnsonContributor 
When I first heard about “The Square,” I had no idea what it would be about or what lesson it would entail. The one thing I tried to do was watch it with an open mind. While I sat in my seat viewing this film in the Maxwell Theatre during the Cinema Series on March 28, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know whether to be confused, amazed or both.In Ruben Ostlund’s film, Christian (played by the Danish actor Claes Bang) is the curator of a Stockholm art museum who drives a Tesla and is a generous, altruistic fellow. In front of the museum, Christian has a new exhibit, an installation piece that is called “The Square.” It is four-by-four meters, and its role is to invite onlookers to be selflessness.The square reminds them that they are responsible for fellow their human begins, whether it is just having a conversation or lending a helping hand in a time a need. Yet we see with Christian’s installation he also encounters how difficult it is to live up to one’s own ideals and expectations.There are a couple of major plot lines in an otherwise fairly episodic movie. First, the naïve Christian get his phone and wallet ripped off in a gag perpetrated on him along a city street by folks pretending to need help. He retaliates in a creative way, but it leads to unforeseen consequences. Then the museum’s public relations team cooks up an odd campaign to promote “The Square” exhibition. The response to the campaign unravels Christian and his staff. There’s also a man who acts like a chimpanzee monkeying around in the movie, along with a real monkey who lives in the apartment owned by the journalist Anne, played by Elisabeth Moss, to further distract us. Of course, there’s also reference to modern communication technology.Overall, I believe that this movie was satisfactory, although it is slow at times and very long (two and a half hours). Yet it does have a lesson in it that socially prominent people should take time out to help others who less fortunate because we could make a lasting impression and an impact on others. It’s a good message, and “The Square,” the winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2017, is the kind of film that makes the viewer think.