I liked this movie a lot more than i expected. Dialogue is realistic and Susanna Anteroinen is especially terrific depicting the mother. She really captures the annoyed's and annoying wife's pace and style of speech. It was also refreshing to see the mother as the bad guy. And i'm certain that many men can sympathize Veli-Matti's situation and the enormity of his suffering and the intense feeling of being subjected to injustice that he feels.
but it feels to me that the writer's didn't know where to go with the story after they had fired the protagonist from his job. So they decided to do the "Frozen Land" solution. Protagonist does some heavy drinking and kills someone for no reason at all. (only surprise is that they did not take the spousal abuse pathway, but that was in line with the antifeminist undertones of the movie.) Until that point the movie was a really insightful depiction of the feelings of the father when he gets unjustly left out of his children's life. Then comes the great deus ex machina that the director invented for his previous film (frozen land): "If the character suffers from any misfortunes (and he always will) he will do some heavy drinking. When under influence of alcohol we can make him do anything at all without giving any heed to whether it fits his character or whether it somehow makes sense.
Yes they did introduce the victim, but his character didn't make any sense. He doesn't like V-M's curtains, so he steals his pet guinea-pig keeps it alive and well in his apartment for many days (although he intensely despises all rodents that thinks them to be a hygiene risk) then stays awake every evening to wait that Veli-Matti will come home staggering drunk. Then he fulfils his masterplan: comes down to the front door, puts the guinea pig in a shopping bag and kills the poor rodent. supposedly all this to send Veli-Matti some message. The director gives two clues to explain the behaviour of the neighbor: lives still with his mom, speaks like latent homosexual stereotype.
So Veli-Matti kills the neighbour and drags his corpse to the woods. Yes. Great stuff. A touching story of a man going through a difficult divorce is abruptly interrupted by idiotic "Frozen Land" stunt in which the main character changes from a sympathetic guy into a murderous maniac. (because of alcohol-consumption.) for no reason and all.
All is left is a pointless epilogue in which Veli-Matti is in prison. the epilogue is pretty good stuff. something like the first half of the movie, but we don't care anymore because we lost contact with the characters already. Thank you mr. Louhimies I really was at first fooled into thinking that this was a story in which the characters lead the way and determined the outcome. But once again you wanted to tell the story of drunken people committing random homicides. you don't need character-development or motives if the characters are drunk while doing whatever they are doing.
seven points. all for the beginning.
but it feels to me that the writer's didn't know where to go with the story after they had fired the protagonist from his job. So they decided to do the "Frozen Land" solution. Protagonist does some heavy drinking and kills someone for no reason at all. (only surprise is that they did not take the spousal abuse pathway, but that was in line with the antifeminist undertones of the movie.) Until that point the movie was a really insightful depiction of the feelings of the father when he gets unjustly left out of his children's life. Then comes the great deus ex machina that the director invented for his previous film (frozen land): "If the character suffers from any misfortunes (and he always will) he will do some heavy drinking. When under influence of alcohol we can make him do anything at all without giving any heed to whether it fits his character or whether it somehow makes sense.
Yes they did introduce the victim, but his character didn't make any sense. He doesn't like V-M's curtains, so he steals his pet guinea-pig keeps it alive and well in his apartment for many days (although he intensely despises all rodents that thinks them to be a hygiene risk) then stays awake every evening to wait that Veli-Matti will come home staggering drunk. Then he fulfils his masterplan: comes down to the front door, puts the guinea pig in a shopping bag and kills the poor rodent. supposedly all this to send Veli-Matti some message. The director gives two clues to explain the behaviour of the neighbor: lives still with his mom, speaks like latent homosexual stereotype.
So Veli-Matti kills the neighbour and drags his corpse to the woods. Yes. Great stuff. A touching story of a man going through a difficult divorce is abruptly interrupted by idiotic "Frozen Land" stunt in which the main character changes from a sympathetic guy into a murderous maniac. (because of alcohol-consumption.) for no reason and all.
All is left is a pointless epilogue in which Veli-Matti is in prison. the epilogue is pretty good stuff. something like the first half of the movie, but we don't care anymore because we lost contact with the characters already. Thank you mr. Louhimies I really was at first fooled into thinking that this was a story in which the characters lead the way and determined the outcome. But once again you wanted to tell the story of drunken people committing random homicides. you don't need character-development or motives if the characters are drunk while doing whatever they are doing.
seven points. all for the beginning.