There is a great deal to like about this film. It almost never went where I expected to go, and as someone who has no knowledge of the source material either in book or television form, I did not feel any signposts during the film itself that parts were serving as call-backs, easter eggs, or other such fluff that dates the superhero/Star Wars genre of today.
The pacing was really, really great and the film's funding from Åland's government and similar partners really shows in the locations. It really allows you to live and breathe on their island, to take in the surroundings and actually feel like you're there with Maija and Janne. If anything it's a solid tourism advert for the area. There were a couple of slow moments, such as when the island is occupied, or the quite extended ending as Maija comes to terms with her solitude. Trimming was somewhat in order, but when it's coming from source material, this kind of thing happens that seemingly unimportant scenes get kept due to their importance in previous media.
The movie has lots of lovely surprises for the new viewer. The attention to detail from the time appears to have been very thought-out: people converse in Swedish, mutter to themselves in Finnish, and deal currency in rubles and kopeks. Characters even have armpit hair - who knew!? In terms of the plot, the movie almost never signposts anything, which for me was really great. We think there's a blossoming romance with the local boy, and that this will come to something greater. Then she's wrenched away, and we think it's going to be a miserable drama where she fights with her wretched husband whom she doesn't even know. Then it's a war drama, then it's a family conflict, then it's a whole philosophical introspection about the meaning of life. It's nice that, for the most part, the film isn't cynical or tragic, but actually wholesome and uplifting. Great stuff!
On the movie's themes, I really liked how they showed rather than told Maija's philosophy and outlook. She was one with nature and took her pleasure from her participation in it. Whereas solitude was something she feared with a stranger, she soon discovers that Janne and she have a huge amount in common at the very base level of their desires that bring them into connection with one another. It's not all just signposted as it would be in a Hollywood movie biopic such as when we get Freddie Mercury's dad telling him vaguely how much he disapproves of his lifestyle in Bohemian Rhapsody.
All in all, the movie didn't have a "special" X-factor about it, but there was a lot to like. Janne and Maija's romance is really lovely and I really wanted things to work out. His fate is so obvious from the get-go, however. The point of it is to drive home the dangerous lives these people really did live in those days, but it didn't make the ending any more satisfying or any less depressing.
The pacing was really, really great and the film's funding from Åland's government and similar partners really shows in the locations. It really allows you to live and breathe on their island, to take in the surroundings and actually feel like you're there with Maija and Janne. If anything it's a solid tourism advert for the area. There were a couple of slow moments, such as when the island is occupied, or the quite extended ending as Maija comes to terms with her solitude. Trimming was somewhat in order, but when it's coming from source material, this kind of thing happens that seemingly unimportant scenes get kept due to their importance in previous media.
The movie has lots of lovely surprises for the new viewer. The attention to detail from the time appears to have been very thought-out: people converse in Swedish, mutter to themselves in Finnish, and deal currency in rubles and kopeks. Characters even have armpit hair - who knew!? In terms of the plot, the movie almost never signposts anything, which for me was really great. We think there's a blossoming romance with the local boy, and that this will come to something greater. Then she's wrenched away, and we think it's going to be a miserable drama where she fights with her wretched husband whom she doesn't even know. Then it's a war drama, then it's a family conflict, then it's a whole philosophical introspection about the meaning of life. It's nice that, for the most part, the film isn't cynical or tragic, but actually wholesome and uplifting. Great stuff!
On the movie's themes, I really liked how they showed rather than told Maija's philosophy and outlook. She was one with nature and took her pleasure from her participation in it. Whereas solitude was something she feared with a stranger, she soon discovers that Janne and she have a huge amount in common at the very base level of their desires that bring them into connection with one another. It's not all just signposted as it would be in a Hollywood movie biopic such as when we get Freddie Mercury's dad telling him vaguely how much he disapproves of his lifestyle in Bohemian Rhapsody.
All in all, the movie didn't have a "special" X-factor about it, but there was a lot to like. Janne and Maija's romance is really lovely and I really wanted things to work out. His fate is so obvious from the get-go, however. The point of it is to drive home the dangerous lives these people really did live in those days, but it didn't make the ending any more satisfying or any less depressing.
