A fitting title for a dark drama, Black Ice is full of the undetectable deceptions that make three people's lives slippery and dangerous. Full of scenes with meaning beyond plot advancement, great acting and intense film making, Musta Jaa unfolds to be a well-made film worth watching, but not life changing. The Hollywood reminiscent style adds a wider audience than the strictly artsy films from other countries, with the dramatic scores, suspense and situations and some added flair of occasional humor.
Trust and betrayal under the blanket of deception is the biggest issue faced by the characters of this intense film. It starts with the basic cheating husband, then skillfully layers on a sort of friendship between the mistress and the wife and many levels of deceptive trust on all parties. Poor Tuuli trusts "Christa" too much for her own good, but from her perspective she wouldn't have suspicions. Leo trusts both of the women but is not trustworthy for either of them, fooling around and making a mess of people's emotions. A truly ironic scene when he thought Tuuli had cheated on him, was not just ironic in that Saara was the cause of the man's presence in bed and they called her, but also that he expected Tuuli to be faithful. Those expectations are laughable in the presence of his philandering ways, though I did appreciate that bit of complexity on his part. Even though Tuuli knows of how much he cheats on his wife, she still stays with him, which is an interesting moral predicament as a participator in adultery.
Dispersed through the film were scenes full of meaning beyond the surface level action that I appreciated greatly. When Tuuli and Saara are playing and dancing on the ice rink, it is deeply metaphorical of their situation at the time. They are cajoling around on a slippery surface, bumping into one another and dancing through this insane love triangle. They waltz together and run around trying to stay on their feet and then Saara makes the risky phone call, drawing attention to their slippery friendship. The other scene I especially noticed was the costume dance party where the two women were wearing slightly disturbing tribal costumes, masked for one another and operating in secret on so many levels.
The intensity of the movie was aided by many gory, disturbing scenes, always with some uncomfortable physicality. The sex scenes were steamy, yet tinged with the act of infidelity which made them aesthetically pleasing but morally cockeyed. The film ending and beginning with a drawn out shot of a scalpel slowly sliding through maternal flesh frames the plot with an uncomfortable emphasis on the nearness of bodily death. Another similar one follows Tuuli's playing with a knife with a crazy look in her eye, then a painfully slow shot that looks like blood dripping down her from her feet to the new hair dye she was rinsing, obviously implying self-mutilation. A scene that was particularly hard to watch for moral discomfort was when Saara tried to check Tuuli's cervix for pregnancy after drugging her, then plays it off as a continued sexual advance. The violation of the sleeping woman as well as the falsity of the encounter was deeply unsettling; it showed how far Saara had strayed morally and set the stage for the climax.
Though the film possesses a lot of positive qualities, there were just a few things I personally didn't like. Outi Maenpaa plays the betrayed wife well, though her character didn't elicit much emotional attachment from me. I wanted to root for her, but it was hard to see what she wanted exactly and if she didn't know, there wasn't much to indicate her inner conflict. I still wanted to know what was to unfold, and even if the film kept the mystery of her thoughts, I still felt almost more attached to Tuuli. I suppose a film doesn't have to have all-around likable characters, but none of them in this film were portrayed in a positive light. Even Tuuli, in my opinion the most likable character, is cast in the shadow of the jealous wife's hatred and we see her as that despicable other woman.
As an overall solid film, it does a good job of exploring what happens when the dark sides of deception undermine trusts and people get hurt. The drama and intensity of this uncomfortable film keep the viewer guessing what will transpire and this ill-fated love triangle is swept along by a current of snowballing events of a dangerous kind.
Trust and betrayal under the blanket of deception is the biggest issue faced by the characters of this intense film. It starts with the basic cheating husband, then skillfully layers on a sort of friendship between the mistress and the wife and many levels of deceptive trust on all parties. Poor Tuuli trusts "Christa" too much for her own good, but from her perspective she wouldn't have suspicions. Leo trusts both of the women but is not trustworthy for either of them, fooling around and making a mess of people's emotions. A truly ironic scene when he thought Tuuli had cheated on him, was not just ironic in that Saara was the cause of the man's presence in bed and they called her, but also that he expected Tuuli to be faithful. Those expectations are laughable in the presence of his philandering ways, though I did appreciate that bit of complexity on his part. Even though Tuuli knows of how much he cheats on his wife, she still stays with him, which is an interesting moral predicament as a participator in adultery.
Dispersed through the film were scenes full of meaning beyond the surface level action that I appreciated greatly. When Tuuli and Saara are playing and dancing on the ice rink, it is deeply metaphorical of their situation at the time. They are cajoling around on a slippery surface, bumping into one another and dancing through this insane love triangle. They waltz together and run around trying to stay on their feet and then Saara makes the risky phone call, drawing attention to their slippery friendship. The other scene I especially noticed was the costume dance party where the two women were wearing slightly disturbing tribal costumes, masked for one another and operating in secret on so many levels.
The intensity of the movie was aided by many gory, disturbing scenes, always with some uncomfortable physicality. The sex scenes were steamy, yet tinged with the act of infidelity which made them aesthetically pleasing but morally cockeyed. The film ending and beginning with a drawn out shot of a scalpel slowly sliding through maternal flesh frames the plot with an uncomfortable emphasis on the nearness of bodily death. Another similar one follows Tuuli's playing with a knife with a crazy look in her eye, then a painfully slow shot that looks like blood dripping down her from her feet to the new hair dye she was rinsing, obviously implying self-mutilation. A scene that was particularly hard to watch for moral discomfort was when Saara tried to check Tuuli's cervix for pregnancy after drugging her, then plays it off as a continued sexual advance. The violation of the sleeping woman as well as the falsity of the encounter was deeply unsettling; it showed how far Saara had strayed morally and set the stage for the climax.
Though the film possesses a lot of positive qualities, there were just a few things I personally didn't like. Outi Maenpaa plays the betrayed wife well, though her character didn't elicit much emotional attachment from me. I wanted to root for her, but it was hard to see what she wanted exactly and if she didn't know, there wasn't much to indicate her inner conflict. I still wanted to know what was to unfold, and even if the film kept the mystery of her thoughts, I still felt almost more attached to Tuuli. I suppose a film doesn't have to have all-around likable characters, but none of them in this film were portrayed in a positive light. Even Tuuli, in my opinion the most likable character, is cast in the shadow of the jealous wife's hatred and we see her as that despicable other woman.
As an overall solid film, it does a good job of exploring what happens when the dark sides of deception undermine trusts and people get hurt. The drama and intensity of this uncomfortable film keep the viewer guessing what will transpire and this ill-fated love triangle is swept along by a current of snowballing events of a dangerous kind.