tuula-1

I saw this years ago, but it has stayed in my memory better than most films. There is something captivatingly twisted about the atmosphere: it almost plays out like a love triangle between the driver, his son and his estranged wife, the boy's mother. As a bonus there are some hilarious scenes from the B-films the wife supposedly starred in, which still somehow do not distract from the overall dramatic, even melodramatic tone. Though a traditionally done, plot- and character driven film, rather than anything experimental, there is something wonderfully odd underneath the surface; maybe it is the depths of feeling the character's are so desperately trying to hide.

This movie had some beautiful locations and scenes, but overall the acting is bad and the story makes no sense: it is full of holes, it goes nowhere except for pointless running around, and the seasons change from early summer to midwinter seemingly overnight: wood anemones are sprouting in the green forest (they bloom in May usually), next morning apparently there is a half a metre-thick layer of snow and all the leaves have fallen from the trees: surely even those not familiar with the Northern seasons would wonder where tons of leaves have suddenly vanished?

Salman Khan acts passably well, but the female lead acts like a catatonic for much of the time, thanfully then being asleep for much of the time after, and there is an unnecessarily comic character popping in and spouting nonsense just as things are otherwise tense.

Songs are nice and dance scenes pretty but both lack energy and emotion. All in all only reason to watch this would be that St Petersburg looks good, as it usually does. The Russian extras do their jobs well, less so the special effects and makeup team...

All in all an avoidable film.