Tove

Tove Jansson was a Swedish-speaking Finnish author and artist born in the 1910s to an artist family. Internationally she's most well-known as the author of the Moomin books and comics strips. This film is the story of her formative years and how she came up with the Moomin characters.

Upon its release it became the second most expensive Finnish film made to that point. And it does look good, I'll give it that, although I'm still not sure just why it needed such a large budget. But the locations and costumes look good. The film is also shot, edited and acted really well, with special mention going to Alma Pöysti as the leading character.

It's also interesting to see the author behind these beloved characters and how her own life influenced the books. Jansson's own rather bohemian lifestyle is definitely reflected in the books and her various acquaintances and friends that would eventually inspire many of the Moomins are also really interesting.

That being said, the film is not as Moomin-heavy as you'd think. It's more a story about a struggling artist and her various trials and tribulations. Successes and losses in both her career and personal life. And while that is interesting enough, I confess to being somewhat disappointed that there wasn't more Moomin content in this film. Then again, Jansson herself expressed in her later years that she's a tad miffed she's only known for Moomins. So perhaps in that regard this film is more respectful to her than many other sources have been.

Nevertheless, it's a great film to look up. Technically sound, well-written and beautifully acted. Not awe-inspiring or overly emotional, but then again, it doesn't need to be.

The Finnish film Tove (2020) was directed by Zaida Bergroth. It stars Alma Pöysti as Tove Jansson, "one of the most beloved Finnish writers/cartoonists/artists," according to a knowledgeable reviewer.

Tove was the creator of the Moomins, important characters in Swedish-language books and comic strips. (Jansson was a member of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.) She also wrote novels and children's fiction.

Alma Pöysti is a brilliant actor, and she makes Jansson's character come alive. This is important, because Pöysti is on the screen almost all the time. The movie rises or falls based on her skills.

The movie has two major plots. One plot revolves around the fact that Jansson wanted to be a recognized artist, not a cartoonist. Another plot involves Jansson's sexuality.

We saw this film at Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre, presented by ImageOut, the great LGBT film festival. (Of course, all safety protocols were in place.)

Tove has an IMDb rating of 7.2. I thought it was better than that, and rated it 8.

Be warned although based on the life of author of a kid's creation, this one is definitely not for the kids.

Although it's heartwarming and quite sad in places, it's one of the better biopic's on artists I've seen in a while. Carried by a excellent performance from Alma Pöysti as Tove Jansson, probably best known for Aki Kaurismaki's recent film Fallen Leaves. She's really a likeable presence on screen.

The film doesn't really shy away from Tove's Bisexuality or her sex life. Although I did think the film did underplay Tove's lifelong partner Tuulikki Pietila role in her life (she gets a few minutes near the end) and it's mostly based around her love affair with Vivica Bandler.

At 1hr 40mins, it doesn't overstay it's welcome. The cast are really excellent. It's not breaking any new ground or anything but having such a likeable lead actress in Pöysti carrying the film does help it. I hope that with success of Fallen Leaves, that we see more of her working outside of Finland.

I seldom give 10's but this is a brilliant movie, wonderful ly acted and directed and cinematography just fantastic.

It touched me deeply in its rawness and honesty and though not familiar with this artist before, was taken aback by the beautiful artistic work and the main characters journey into finding her way and her identity through her work.

I stand by scandavian movies and series being the best and possibly grossly undervalued.

Well I watched it, but as someone who was/is enchanted by the Moomins even into adulthood, I felt cheated. I personally have very little interest in most people's sex lives, but I am especially uninterested in the sex lives of people who would have So Much more interesting things to talk about. She obviously grew up inspired by the countryside, and there's a lot of that in the Moomins. This was unexplored. And then there was the delightful mother role, who obviously inspired the character of Moomintroll's mother, but whose character was shamefully unexplored. How anyone can make a film like this about something so fascinating and just focus on sex and longing for romance is TOTALLY BEYOND ME. I was quite disappointed. I am just not very interested in knowing about people's sex lives. Not even if they were gay in a time when it as frowned upon by some. I am far more interested in their intellect and ideas. I consider this film to be full of missed opportunities. They didn't even explore why Vivica, the lover/theatre director had the fantastic idea of making a children's play about the Moomins, which in itself must have been a new, breakthrough genre of theatre. That was genius. If I had made this film it would have been better, and I don't say that lightly.