Off Track is a Swedish sports dramedy directed by Mårten Klingberg about a pair of siblings from Stockholm who start training together to ski the 90 kilometers of the Vasaloppet, a world-renowned cross-country race. When the brother-sister duo is first introduced, they couldn’t be any more different. Lisa is divorced, has a drinking problem, and is at risk of losing custody of her daughter.
To add insult to injury, her ex-husband is dating the perfect sugar-free woman, who seems a bit too keen to take over Lisa’s motherly duties. Her older brother, Daniel, is a devoted skier, financially secure, and appears to have the perfect marriage with Klara. But not all is what it seems with Daniel, as he and Klara have been struggling with infertility for years, which has been putting a strain on their marriage.
After a flooding incident leaves her home uninhabitable, Lisa moves in with her brother, to Klara’s dismay. Unlike her brother, Lisa is not exactly a sporty person. But a chance encounter with her daughter and rival leads to Lisa signing up for the Vasaloppet.
In the final act, the race is fully on the way. The first to drop off are Lisa’s love interest and his elderly mother, who has a medical emergency. While Lisa is tempted to call it quits at the halfway point, seeing her social worker quitting convinces the woman to finish what she started.
Daniel is also having a hard time. The previous night, he was close to cheating on Klara with a young racer he’d been infatuated with for years because of her social media reputation. Yet the young influencer’s dedication to the race involved her going to the bathroom in her ski suit, and the suit was white, which may have given Daniel pause on his plans to leave his wife for her.
To complicate things even further, Klara and the taxi driver were waiting at the finish line. When Daniel learns his wife was waiting for him, he panics, goes off track, and gets lost. Luckily, Klara finds him before she freezes to death and the two have a heartfelt reunion. During said heartfelt reunion they decide to separate. It doesn’t make much sense why Klara took a long taxi ride to find her husband only to say they should break up.
Meanwhile, Lisa is about to finish the race, yet she’s unaware her daughter had run away to meet her at the finish line. When the woman finally crosses the finish line, it turns out she’s the final skier to do so. She crosses the finish line, the crowd is cheering and her daughter jumps in her arms. Two siblings started the Vasaloppet – one finished the race, while the other nearly froze to death.
A few months later, Lisa’s apartment has been repaired, and her relationship with her daughter is better than ever. The social worker has closed her case, and she’s no longer at risk of losing custody. She may or may not have started dating the police officer.
Daniel and Klara seem to have separated. However, the news that she’s finally pregnant brings the two back together.
