Not many reviews of this title, considering it was probably the most successful Finnish movie of 2009. So why not compensate with a bit longer one.
It's not an easy one to review. There are good things going on, but there's also a lot of things that didn't work. For me at least. I have to say I was also a bit prejudiced, because you could consider Mäkelä a major blockbuster director who clearly leans more into full-on entertainment rather than deep and nuanced dramatic presentation. I'm not a huge fan if dumbed down blockbusters.
The idea of up and coming gangsters bootlegging liquor in 1960's Helsinki is interesting. Much more interesting than what eventually ended up on screen. The story spans over two decades and the movie runs for two hours. The result is a collage of a lot of powerful scenes, which don't really work as a whole as good as they should. All the themes, including liquor bootlegging, domestic violence, drug trafficking and addiction, insanity, miscarriage, infertility, suicide, loneliness, murder, battery are just briefly scratched, with maybe a few exceptions. There is a strange unbalance of seemingly cool blockbuster movie and deeper drama that doesn't work very well. This combination worked much better in Mäkeläs earlier movie "Häjyt".
The cast includes the same actors who have been all over Finnish cinema for the last ten years. Most of them very fine actors, but they are so plenty in this movie it just becomes a huge fest of spot-the-actor. Even the supporting cast, who some have nothing to do with the plot, are well known comedians or dramatic actors.
Edelmann does a fairly good job as Tomppa. He's is not just "pretending", but actually acting the role if maybe remains a bit distant. Franzen as Krisu is quite convincing as a drug addict, but most of the time he's just way over the top. Viitala does well as Monika, but her character is eventually left as a total mystery. Interestingly comedian Hietalahti pulls up one of the most interesting characters, but he is also a victim of uninspired script writing. Pääkkönen is amazingly miscast as Korppu.
Speaking of Korppu, I don't understand the need for so many opponents for Tomppa. While Uki as an old schooler is an interesting (yet irrelevant) character, he makes Korppu look like a school boy in comparison. Then there's the cops. The story would've benefited from concentrating on one baddie. Also, for quite a long into the movie, you're not really sure who's the lead, Edelmann or Franzen, while towards the end, Franzen sort of fades more to the background.
Helsinki is a beautiful city, especially the area if Rööperi (Punavuori), but you don't get to see it as much as one would hope. This is probably a productional decision and you end up having a lot of scenes indoors or out of town where you can easily re-create the 60's or 70's feel with a couple of set elements to fit the era. Here lies another problem of the movie, as at times it feels as if you're watching .. well, a set. You can clearly see that the set artists have had a hell of a good time, because there are so many neat vintage elements to be seen. It's like a theme park.
It's the sum of it's parts that fails. Good actors, interesting story, bad script. There are some amazingly dumb moments in the script, where the characters are just explaining what they're doing on the screen. As a whole it's an uneven bunch of "cool scenes" where the cast is just try to look "gangsta" and in between having a couple of moving and seemingly deeper scenes, which are way too short for the actors to really get into character.
Pretty much everything is over the top and competing of your attention, superstar actors, camera trickery, slo-mo walking, dramatic music, powerful scenes after powerful scenes, detail rich decors. It's like a fat pizza with hundreds of toppings and you end up having hell of a stomach ache.
Interesting story which would've deserved a more subtle delivery and not to be treated as a summer blockbuster, too much posing and coolness for me.
It's not an easy one to review. There are good things going on, but there's also a lot of things that didn't work. For me at least. I have to say I was also a bit prejudiced, because you could consider Mäkelä a major blockbuster director who clearly leans more into full-on entertainment rather than deep and nuanced dramatic presentation. I'm not a huge fan if dumbed down blockbusters.
The idea of up and coming gangsters bootlegging liquor in 1960's Helsinki is interesting. Much more interesting than what eventually ended up on screen. The story spans over two decades and the movie runs for two hours. The result is a collage of a lot of powerful scenes, which don't really work as a whole as good as they should. All the themes, including liquor bootlegging, domestic violence, drug trafficking and addiction, insanity, miscarriage, infertility, suicide, loneliness, murder, battery are just briefly scratched, with maybe a few exceptions. There is a strange unbalance of seemingly cool blockbuster movie and deeper drama that doesn't work very well. This combination worked much better in Mäkeläs earlier movie "Häjyt".
The cast includes the same actors who have been all over Finnish cinema for the last ten years. Most of them very fine actors, but they are so plenty in this movie it just becomes a huge fest of spot-the-actor. Even the supporting cast, who some have nothing to do with the plot, are well known comedians or dramatic actors.
Edelmann does a fairly good job as Tomppa. He's is not just "pretending", but actually acting the role if maybe remains a bit distant. Franzen as Krisu is quite convincing as a drug addict, but most of the time he's just way over the top. Viitala does well as Monika, but her character is eventually left as a total mystery. Interestingly comedian Hietalahti pulls up one of the most interesting characters, but he is also a victim of uninspired script writing. Pääkkönen is amazingly miscast as Korppu.
Speaking of Korppu, I don't understand the need for so many opponents for Tomppa. While Uki as an old schooler is an interesting (yet irrelevant) character, he makes Korppu look like a school boy in comparison. Then there's the cops. The story would've benefited from concentrating on one baddie. Also, for quite a long into the movie, you're not really sure who's the lead, Edelmann or Franzen, while towards the end, Franzen sort of fades more to the background.
Helsinki is a beautiful city, especially the area if Rööperi (Punavuori), but you don't get to see it as much as one would hope. This is probably a productional decision and you end up having a lot of scenes indoors or out of town where you can easily re-create the 60's or 70's feel with a couple of set elements to fit the era. Here lies another problem of the movie, as at times it feels as if you're watching .. well, a set. You can clearly see that the set artists have had a hell of a good time, because there are so many neat vintage elements to be seen. It's like a theme park.
It's the sum of it's parts that fails. Good actors, interesting story, bad script. There are some amazingly dumb moments in the script, where the characters are just explaining what they're doing on the screen. As a whole it's an uneven bunch of "cool scenes" where the cast is just try to look "gangsta" and in between having a couple of moving and seemingly deeper scenes, which are way too short for the actors to really get into character.
Pretty much everything is over the top and competing of your attention, superstar actors, camera trickery, slo-mo walking, dramatic music, powerful scenes after powerful scenes, detail rich decors. It's like a fat pizza with hundreds of toppings and you end up having hell of a stomach ache.
Interesting story which would've deserved a more subtle delivery and not to be treated as a summer blockbuster, too much posing and coolness for me.