This movie is simply fantastic. It is an artistic and wonderfully put together account of Finland's greatest composer of all times.
The criticism given to this movie unfortunately suffers from lack of understanding different ways of telling a story. You have to let go of the preconceived idea of that a movie about a person who really lived (and is a national icon in this case) should be absolutely and 100 % factual and in precise time line. This movie, like most others made of great men & women of the past, is the artistic view of one director. It is not a linear, straightforward, or factual story. From the very first minutes of the movie you can sense that this movie is supposed to be a collection of moments passing by, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. It is like viewing this man's life through slightly misty lenses that reveal only pieces here and there. It won't recite every fact of Sibelius' life nor present everything exactly in the order as it appeared in real life. For such stories, we have the documentary format and books. As the kind of artistic quilt of moments vowen together that this movie is, it is a masterpiece, and a very moving one. When I saw this in the movie theater here in Helsinki and the end texts appeared, the whole movie theater was dead silent. You could see tears in eyes, you sensed the moved atmosphere, you could have heard a needle drop. I have never witnessed anything like that in a movie theater in this country.
The main roles are well cast, especially Miina Turunen as Aino, and the overall settings and colouring are wonderful. Lahti Symphony with Osmo Vanska does an excellent work with the music, as always. Also, thumbs up for Koivusalo for showing a bit of patriotism, which nowadays seems to be drowned in the sea of "globalism". It is good that the youth of today sees how things were only about 100 years ago, and where we come from.
Thank you for a great movie, Mr Koivusalo. The DVD will go from me to all expat relatives and foreign friends!
