Rat King

The director Petri Kotwica is the screenwriter as well and his "sitting on two chairs simultaneously" was apparently not a good idea: the plot is not running smoothly, there are several questionable moments and the ending is plain. At first, there is too big emphasis on PC gaming and 1+1 connection, then it suddenly becomes a twisted college film... And what about the scenes where a mother and a girlfriend do not recognise their son and boyfriend, respectively! Even dark cellars and dark periods in a Nordic country would cause this :)

As for the cast, all the main roles are performed by Finns and many supporting ones by Estonians - so much for a Finnish-Estonian joint project... The performers are okay, but nothing special, and apparently the director's desire to stress dark psychology overshadows "naturalism" of appearances.

Rat King is perhaps for (young) computer geeks, but I was not impressed. Nevertheless, quite okay for a less than 1,5 hours.

Story of a high school graduate (Juri played by Max Ovaska) who is addicted to computer games. After her girlfriend (Mia played by Niina Koponen) threatens to leave him, if he does not stop playing and choose her, Juri gets frustrated and decides to stop playing. Soon after he is contacted by another player, that has been missing. Niki (Julius Lavonen) is a mysterious character whose appearance is almost identical with Juri's.

Niki seems to be troubled with a game he has been playing. He needs a safe place to stay at for some time. Juri decides to help him, and eventually finds web address tattooed on Niki's arm. Juri chooses to try where the address takes him, and he ends up playing a weird game, with different tasks. Niki decides to help Juri in his tasks, but at the same time, they end up changing identities, mixing them together.

The very beginning of the story seems distant and cold. Mainly because of the depressive and majestic movie score by Lauri Porra. Cinematography by Mika Orasmaa is dark and atmospheric. All this darkness seems to be a little too much, and the storyline ends up suffering from it. It seems clumsy.

Director Petri Kotwica has collected several awards in his homeland Finland, and abroad. He is one of the new directors on the front-line, seeking to succeed internationally. Rat King seems to borrow a lot from American High School thrillers, and lacks Finnish touch. One of the reasons may be that, the film has been filmed in Estonia. Even the country is neighboring Finland, the atmospheres and locations have different feeling to them. However, this is a reason, the film does not really 'feel' Finnish.

By the end of the film the story starts moving on. It gets intense toward the end, and the identity play gets to it's end, and makes the viewer gasp. The film has certainly has its thrill, suspense, and action, which is quite rare for a Finnish film. Even though it lacks originality, it may be one of the most entertaining films from Finland in 2012.