A film review: "Frozen City" [2006 Finland]

Writer-director Aku Louhimies' melodrama "Valkoinen kaupunki" [Eng. Title: Frozen City] looks at the break-up of a marriage and its aftermath from a viewpoint rarely given airtime, either in law or practice - the husband's. The film - a depressingly less-than neutral version of a Kramer vs. Kramer, goes to great lengths to focus on the male partner's tribulations following a separation.



Velu's





Velu's (Janne Virtanen) profile would probably tick all the right boxes for a woman looking for an ideal husband - he's hard-working, dutiful, level-headed, and adores children, apart from being a handsome hunk with a libido to match. And what does his wife Hannah (Susanna Mikkonen) do! She disappears for months, presumably 'discovering' herself somewhere in France, and turns up at Helsinki airport one day, not quite expecting to see the family she'd ignored welcome her with placards.

It doesn't take long for Velu to gather that their marriage is finished - that he needs to move out, but that will only be the beginning of his miseries. Velu, a taxi driver, could barely make ends meet even during the best of times. He'll move into a cold, dingy apartment in an unpleasant corner of the city, for that's all he could afford after his other commitments. However, his biggest challenge would be to counter the extraordinary measures that Hannah will undertake to deny him equal parenting rights.


Whilst slugging it out with social care authorities and preparing for court battles, Velu, juggling three shifts, will be forced to contend with a decidedly mean-spirited Hannah in order to gain access to his children, who're only too glad to see him when they get a chance. For related reasons, he's also under pressure to keep his job, and a belligerent neighbour's frequent taunting only adds to his existing woes.

Things come to a head one day, and a drunk Velu ends up in prison for grievous assault, throwing a spanner into whatever chances he had of sharing custody of the children. Hannah will visit him occasionally, pretending that she cared for him, but in effect only prolonging his pain. During one such visit, she tells him that she's moving to France with the children, and won't be visiting him any more...

The film has a lot going for it - the performances are convincing and truly heartfelt, and the cinematography, dialogues, and sound engineering imbue a gritty realism to the drama. But I have a problem with the characterisation, because things are never as black and white in the real world. It is henceforth hard to reconcile with a character as cold and unsympathetic as Hannah's - surely no normal mother of three would be as heartless without apparent reason. But to its credit, the film opens up debate and raises some important issues concerning a father's station and parental rights in society - too many of whom have been forced to surrender without a fight due to prevailing dominant wisdom. At least for this reason, it is Recommended Viewing..!

Amazon DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Janne Virtanen and Susanna Mikkonen
Two scenes feature nudity - the first is in the sauna when Velu and Hannah come to terms with their separation and try to establish ground rules for having access to children - despite arguing, they end up having sex. The second is in prison when Velu is shown changing into civilian clothes, in preparation for a 'conjugal' visit.






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"Kuutamolla" [2002 Finland] - A review

Aku Louhimies' chick-flick "Kuutamolla" [Eng. Title: Lovers and Leavers] looks at a Scandinavian version of Bridget Jones - slender and reserved, who hopes to meet and fall in love with the man of her dreams.

Iiris (Minna Haapkylä), reluctant to socialise, spends most of her free time watching films, and often quotes dialogues from them while conversing with the few friends she has. They try to hook her up with various people, and the one she likes and quickly falls in love with is a young and good looking film-maker named Marko (Peter Franzén). But he tires of her just as quickly and dumps a distraught Iiris unceremoniously, forcing friends to come to her aid. One of them is Laura (Laura Malmivaara), a mother of two married to Sami (Matti Ristinen). But Laura's history prior to Sami will unexpectedly catch up on her, and in the spur of the moment, abandons Sami and children to rendezvous with a former Argentinian lover. Iiris and Sami draw comfort in each other's arms and embark on an affair, until Laura returns just as suddenly as she fled, to claim back her family. Marko, having made a successful feature film début, becomes aware of Iiris' affair with Sami and now wants her back, even proposing marriage and inviting her to live in the US with him. She readily agrees, but on the way to the airport, changes her mind...

There's little meaningful criticism I could offer on this Hollywood-styled mainstream fare apart from stating my inability to enthuse on Iiris' character and story - I would have preferred to have followed Laura's story instead, which certainly offered greater drama and intrigue. Even the cut-away portions of Laura's affair that found its way into the deleted scenes section of the DVD didn't shed enough light on her story. The rest of the film is just about average - not terrible, but nothing special either. But knowing that the film wasn't particularly aimed at me - I'm tempted to recommend it to a female audience, perhaps in their twenties and thirties - I may be off the mark here, but then again we all carry our stereotypes with us, don't we..! ;)

Amazon DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Heikki Vihinen, Minna Haapkylä, Matti Ristinen, and Peter Franzén
There is intermittent male nudity (ladies - take note), and Minna Haapkylä is the only female actor seen in the nude, frontal on a couple of occasions.



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Saija Lentonen in “Young Love” [2001 Finland]

The title for Arto Lehkamo's film "Young Love" suggests that it was intended as a coming-of-age romantic drama, but I suspect it is a case of wrong labelling...

Thirteen year old Jukka (Joonas Nordman) - a photography enthusiast, is struck by the looks of nineteen year old supermarket assistant Johanna (Saija Lentonen), and notices one night that she's also a neighbour. He takes pictures of her in the nude and clumsily leaves prints in the school's dark room, only for classmates to pass them around, and eventually to Johanna as well. Furious, she barges into Jukka's flat to tell him off, but will agree to pose for him, so that he could promote her as the next supermodel. Jukka also strikes a relationship with his photography teacher Martti (Pekka Lukka) in order to learn more, but the fact that Martti is a homosexual sets rumour mills rolling, and Jukka will in due course realise that Johanna fancies someone older than him.

I'll restrict my critique to a few words as you all know how much I hate making negative comments - this is a film that should have been scripted, directed, and edited differently. For a start, we don't see anything remotely romantic between Jukka and Johanna. Instead of the 'love' angle, the direction and the screenplay should have focused on Jukka's coming-of-age, learning the ways of the world - adapting or rejecting it. Some important elements (like Martti's illness) are astonishingly skimmed-past, and despite there being enough ingredients for a good drama, the young protagonist comes through as someone not that curious about most things, largely due to the wayward direction and editing. Perhaps the same raw footage could yet be edited into something more purposeful, and even given a worthier title..!

Amazon.com DVD Link [PAL]

 

The Nudity: Saija Lentonen
Two scenes in the film feature nudity from Saija Lentonen; when Johanna admires herself in front of the mirror, and later while posing for Jukka's photographs.



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Laura Birn, Amanda Pilke, and others in “Vuosaari” [2012 Finland]

Of the few Finnish films I've had the opportunity to see, director Aku Louhimies' name appears twice. His multi-strand drama "Vuosaari" [Eng. Title: Naked Harbour] is certainly the better of the two (the one I'm comparing with is his earlier Levottomat).

Storyline:
Set in and around Helsinki, the film unravels several parallel but unconnected stories - the common feature being its focus on relationships within each respective environment. We follow a druggie-couple, hoping against odds to make a fresh start, a doting single father and his son, a precocious teenager desperate to become famous, the son of an immigrant single mum who suffers bullying in school, a wealthy family's failing marriage and the husband's extramarital affair, a young boy aching for love from his indifferent mother and finding companionship through his pet dog, and a terminally ill mother and her child coming to terms with what lies ahead (the most moving story among all).

The film doesn't analyse these relationships as much as observe them sympathetically. Some are melodramatic, while the others are quite dispassionate. The stunning winter-wonderland backdrop acts as a stark contrast to the despair, foreboding, and misery of the characters' lives. This peculiarity also appears to be a very Finnish facet from what little I know about the country and their cinema - you sometimes wonder whether it's the cold climate that does this to them. And this is not even a depressing film - it resolves several stories in a rather upbeat fashion, and there is plenty of love and humour in the film too! In any case, what struck me about the film more than anything else is the exceptional performances by ALL the main cast, young and old. This after all reflects on the quality of the screenplay, shot selection, editing and importantly, the direction. The other positive in the film is its breathtaking cinematography, aided of course by the marvellous landscape and some good set design. Despite the convenient and sloppy ending to one or two of these stories, I thoroughly enjoyed the film for its most part, and it is for that reason that this is Recommended Viewing!

Amazon Blu-ray Link | Amazon DVD Link

 


 

The Nudity:
Laura Birn, Amanda Pilke, Matleena Kuusniemi, Pekka Strang, Lenna Kuurmaa, Mikko Kouki, and Teemo Heino
As suggested by this list, a good chunk of the adult main cast, male and female, appear nude in the film, but they're all brief, relevant, and incidental.



Scene Guide:

• As Make frets over finding cash to pay off a loan shark, fiancée Iiris suggests they have some fun instead. They both appear to be drug addicts.
• Fun over, and when Make reiterates his love for Iiris, she asks him not to be clingy. Iiris is played by sultry Laura Birn.
• "It's payback time", so says the loan shark-thug as he accosts Make after the deadline, and Iiris intervenes by suggesting a different way to deal with the situation. Make could only watch in dismay as his fiancée performs fellatio on the thug.
• No nudity - sixteen year old Milla is desperate to become famous. After some unsuccessful auditions, she decides to build herself a seductive portfolio!
• Milla befriends a photographer at one of her auditions, and makes it plain to him that she'll be willing to do 'anything' to become famous. This inevitably leads to her first porn shoot, despite him making clear what this would entail. Milla is determined all the same, her reasoning - "One should try everything, right?" Milla is played by the rather cute Amanda Pike.
• Sara and husband Lauri haven't made love in ages - their marriage is rapidly falling apart. Sara finds out about his affair with their young maid Viivi, and confronts him one evening by not only inviting Viivi for dinner, but also sauna afterwards. The painful episode is filled with irony and humour, as Sara, superbly played by Matleena Kuusniemi, relishes putting her husband through several awkward moments, only to end up with pie on her face. Stone-faced Lauri is played by Pekka Strang, and Viivi by the pretty and sexy Lenna Kuurmaa.
• Father and son bonding - hitherto domineering father Pertti finally opens up to his own insecurities with son Teemu in the sauna. Pertti is played by Mikko Kouki, and Teemu but Teemu Heino.