Saw Black Ice (2007). It was a very taut drama about a woman, her husband, and his lover who she (the wife) learns about on her birthday. The film starts off merely compelling and ends with an iron grip on your attention. A masterful manipulation not seen this side of Haneke. The morbid threat of death is kind of constantly palpably hanging in the air. It begins with the wife obsessively stalking the mistress and, when it seems murder is out of the question for now, she befriends her. She adopts a fake name but otherwise talks freely about her husband cheating on her with another woman. The mistress, under these false pretenses, comforts her. This leads to an excellent scene where the wife talks about what she'd like to do to her husband's mistress. As she talks, the camera shifts uneasily back and forth, sloshily focusing in and out like it was in a Japanese horror, while the wife talks violence and the mistress reacts sympathetically.
Ultimately, the wife is punished for her initial blood-lust by getting more revenge than she could have ever hoped for. The husband and mistress are both masterfully and pathetically manipulated. Sometimes the wife's manipulations seem a bit too effortless. There's a scene that ends in a lesbian make-out that strained even my fairly generous suspension of disbelief. The film is not without lyricism however: at one point the two women walk and dance on an empty ice rink. The otherwise whimsical scene is darkened by groaning cellos on the soundtrack. Soon, a police car with its siren on goes by and the sense of oppression moves into the film universe. The soundtrack dies and, no longer smiling, the wife starts springing her traps.
Very dramatic (which, you know, reader beware. I love me some melodrama.), well plotted and strongly acted. It reminded me a lot of Closer, only with less alliance-tangling. A strong end to my brief adventure through Finnish cinema. Next up: a three-movie jaunt through Spain.
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