Suden vuosi (2007) User Reviews

Searching fearlessness

[waffel-1 · 8/10 · 8 February 2007]

"Suden Vuosi" in English "The Year of The Wolf".

This movie was a nice surprise. I wished to see something innocent and pure as the poster of this movie promised. For my relief the promise was fulfilled.

Sari is a intelligent student in a university and Mikko is her teacher. At the same time Sari is lonely with her illness and Mikko fumbles through divorce. Slowly Sari and Mikko start to find peculiar consolation in a unconventional relationship.

In the beginning, the leading character, Sari, has a spell of fainting. She suffers epilepsy and when she is unconscious, the element of water and darkness takes over the subconscious. Transparent touch persists beautifully through the movie. The story develops without difficulty and the characters are believable and alive. Even dialog, which often is a stumbling block in Finnish movies, works well.

"Suden Vuosi" handled serious subjects as divorce and fear of death, still the movie contained excellent scenes where the events and characters were hilarious. Thanks to the writer Mika Ripatti and great leading actors, Krista Kosonen and Kari Heiskanen, there was a good balance between darkness and light.

My favorite person was Mikko's 15 years old daughter Lotta, who in the beginning of the movie tried to ask what is wrong with him and mum. The timing and ingredients of comedy between father and daughter worked magnificent in that scene.

Successful calmness and genuineness are rare elements in Finnish movies. There were couple scenes and images that in my opinion are little too heavy or exaggerated, but in the end the entity is strong. This is a movie for busy women who need to sit down, relax and see pretty pictures.

Watch it if you want a serious story and are bored by violence

[alan-467 · 8/10 · 31 December 2008]

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.

psychological, entertaining, very good actors

[jounimak · 8/10 · 3 April 2010]

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.