Suden vuosi

This film is a Finnish step towards Ingmar Bergman's way of making films: Very carefully picked actors playing splendidly well.This is a serious film, still containing humor enough to make it easy and light to watch. Helsinki appears as a very beautiful city.

The divorce, loneliness and pain are described truthfully. The starring characters maintain their dignity even though they face very heavy difficulties. Romance in the film, obvious to everybody but the main characters, advances slowly without exaggeration. And is tolerable even for a man like me.

I would have given 9/10, but in the end of the movie there are two hospital emergencies in a row too close to each other. It is logical, because one crises leads to another, but the same situation is repeated too soon. So 8/10 will have to be enough.

As a fan of Finnish movies, when I saw that Suden Vuosi was available on DVD, I read the comment by waffel-1 and decided to give it a try. I agree with everything that waffel-1 wrote and would add that it's refreshing to see a movie whose most violent scene has just one punch that barely connects. There are a couple of short sex scenes that would not have been included thirty years ago and could easily have been omitted without detracting from the story, but that's my only quibble.

I particularly liked the scene at Mikaela's Christmas gathering where Mikko replies to criticism of him by revealing the faults of the various other people at the gathering - notice how he doesn't criticise Mikaela and Leif though - I don't think that I would have been so forgiving!

If you get the DVD, don't forget to view the bonus of "The Orders", which shows various scenes from the movie with musical accompaniment.