Helmiä ja sikoja

Once again director Perttu Leppä has made small budget movie about Finnish youth. This time it´s all about 4 brothers, who are indebted to 2 gangsters and their old man is in jail. Lots of hilarious moments especially for you, who liked the previous Perttu Leppä movie "Pitkä Kuuma Kesä".

The film had several good points, above all the music and the filming, but the manuscript was not to my liking. Judging from the reaction of the teenage audience I was not in the majority, though. The director of the film denies that the film is intended for teenagers, but several things point to that direction.

...I would hate to say that it kind of sucked and I'm not gonna, it's just that it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

I think it was very honest attempt to make laid back comedy which in Finland usually has something to do with heavy boozing or (male) nudity.

I didn't laugh one single time and I really had wanted to like this flick. I would like to say it was sympathetic, but it really wasn't.

It was way too long and it's pacing was most of the time off note. The whole mid section of the movie just kind of blurred and when the lame ass finale finally came, I couldn't care less for any of the characters.

Acting was over all mediocre - the little girl was very good though. The four brothers were natural, but quite uninteresting and stereotyphical. Taneli Mäkelä & the-guy-who-played-Sibelius were straight out of a goof ball comedy skit and really painfully stuck out. The bad guys were from a different genre also, somewhere between "Sopranos" and "Tankki täyteen".

Cinematography was like in many other finnish films: fairly up to TV standards. Not enough pictures and not enough cinematic vision.

The beautiful song sung by the kid was of course, well, beautiful BUT NOT THAT GOD DAMN BEAUTIFUL. I mean, jeez, everytime she sung it the camera gets close to her slowly, people's eyes get moist and the movie going audience is almost litarally forced to feel emotional. I was waiting for a "YOU SHOULD CRY NOW" subtitles appear on the screen the final time this happened. Once used this kind of overly overwhelming scene would've worked, but they wasted that ammo pretty early on.

Maybe I'm a cynic and should be happy with what I'm given, but I know that finnish filmmakers could do better. Perttu Leppä including, whose previous films (especially his great short films) worked a lot better in my oppinion. "Helmiä ja sikoja" is a hyper naive picture and you should follow the main characters' example and drink heavily thru the whole film. That might have helped me.

I went to see this movie with my 13-year old niece. I was truly positively surprised when we left the theatre. OK, maybe this movie will never win an Oscar, but sure as hell, lots of people will like it! Director Leppä´s style is very close to Finnish state of soul. I actually had a few flashbacks to my youth when I saw all hassling and boozing of those characters. Still, there is a sensitive part between younger but lonely girl and a young woman who has just left her former life with an butthole-boyfriend.

To say at least something negative: Some characters aren´t maybe at their right spots. Antti Virmavirta - one of my favourite Finnish actors - isn´t right kind of man to play that role. Does a good job though, but someone else´s appearance could have been better.

As others say, I wouldn´t recommend this movie to non-finnish audience. But for you Finnish people, this is a must-see, no doubt.

Who knew Finnish people were funny? (Who knew they actually had electricity?)

Casual xenophobia aside I saw this as part of Edinburgh Film Festival and of the (too) many movies I saw this was second only to Old Boy on my favourites list and certainly the biggest crowdpleaser. Perhaps it's because I sat through for too many 'worthy' efforts but this really funny and had my friends, who weren't keen and came under duress, laughing throughout. A buoy of simple charms in a sea of pretension, the tale of the four brothers and their get-rich-quick schemes isn't exactly original but more than makes up for it in charm and feeling. Are all Finnish movies this good?