Tove (2020) -
A lot of people are going to criticise this film for not focusing on The Moomins enough and I must confess that I am one of them. The Moomins were the reason that I turned up to this film in the first place after all.
While I was initially happy to learn about the creator, I thought that with another twenty minutes or so about the funny little trolls, as well as the rest of the story, her dramatised life could have been a more successful film, because it would give those needing something a bit more Hollywood-ised what they wanted too.
It didn't help that the romance that developed and her other life wasn't exactly outrageous or that intriguing. It was certainly not a new story, the post war lesbian romance has been done and it seemed to lack passion.
I think that I was hoping that it would be a more joyous production too, based on the wonder I knew of The Moomins that I loved so much as a child and probably still would if the originals weren't so hard and expensive to get hold of.
I knew nothing about Tove, other than her writing and illustration credits and only then because I had loved that felt animation, so I found it hard to know if this film was a true representation of her life.
I don't know if it made it easier or more difficult to watch, because I had no idea of her actual history.
If I had watched a film about George Lucas or J. K. Rowling, I probably would have had a feeling about how it should have been or at least an opinion, because I feel I know them well, but it was hard to say if the film was done well, not knowing what she was really like. In some ways it made it easier to watch, because I could concentrate on the story, rather than criticising the errors all the way through, but it also showed that the story was by no means a rollercoaster of emotion for the viewer.
Usually I read all of the IMDB trivia and it tells me why the film was made wrong or what was so right about it, but there was very little to glean from the three posts there. I didn't think that I would glean anything from Wikipedia either.
It was also really difficult to get the emotions from a language that is almost completely alien to me. As such I couldn't really tell you whether their performances were Oscar worthy. The only one that I felt some real feeling from was the character of Atos, played by Shanti Roney and that was easy, because he was the most mistreated.
Tove and Vivica's romance actually reminded me of the relationship between Vince and Stuart in 'Queer As Folk (UK)' (1999). That unrequited feeling and the hurt that goes with seeing the person you love kissing and sleeping with everyone else but you, is not easy to deal with.
They torture you so you can't be apart from them and can't find someone new, whilst also keeping you at arms length for when you're needed.
And poor old Atos got to be the substitute in the meantime.
I realise that the film was made by the people from Jansson's country of origin, but I wanted something a bit more, to truly learn how the animations and stories she created were imagined and came to be. The European, art house cinema experience that was produced was fine as a lesbian romance film, but didn't have anything extra. It could have been anyones story.
I do find with a lot of Euro cinema that it is either filmed with a dull filter or made in a strange comedic way, this was the first. It wouldn't normally bother me, but even the party scenes were somewhat dreary and depressing, like no matter what, Tove could never be happy.
There was some really great swing music used as part of the soundtrack though, but even that didn't cheer things up for very long.
Maybe those with more knowledge of the artist may enjoy the film more than I did, but as a general viewer I didn't gain anything from the experience except perhaps the need to search eBay for The Moomins DVDs, because the story on its own was nothing new or exciting.
458.99/1000.
A lot of people are going to criticise this film for not focusing on The Moomins enough and I must confess that I am one of them. The Moomins were the reason that I turned up to this film in the first place after all.
While I was initially happy to learn about the creator, I thought that with another twenty minutes or so about the funny little trolls, as well as the rest of the story, her dramatised life could have been a more successful film, because it would give those needing something a bit more Hollywood-ised what they wanted too.
It didn't help that the romance that developed and her other life wasn't exactly outrageous or that intriguing. It was certainly not a new story, the post war lesbian romance has been done and it seemed to lack passion.
I think that I was hoping that it would be a more joyous production too, based on the wonder I knew of The Moomins that I loved so much as a child and probably still would if the originals weren't so hard and expensive to get hold of.
I knew nothing about Tove, other than her writing and illustration credits and only then because I had loved that felt animation, so I found it hard to know if this film was a true representation of her life.
I don't know if it made it easier or more difficult to watch, because I had no idea of her actual history.
If I had watched a film about George Lucas or J. K. Rowling, I probably would have had a feeling about how it should have been or at least an opinion, because I feel I know them well, but it was hard to say if the film was done well, not knowing what she was really like. In some ways it made it easier to watch, because I could concentrate on the story, rather than criticising the errors all the way through, but it also showed that the story was by no means a rollercoaster of emotion for the viewer.
Usually I read all of the IMDB trivia and it tells me why the film was made wrong or what was so right about it, but there was very little to glean from the three posts there. I didn't think that I would glean anything from Wikipedia either.
It was also really difficult to get the emotions from a language that is almost completely alien to me. As such I couldn't really tell you whether their performances were Oscar worthy. The only one that I felt some real feeling from was the character of Atos, played by Shanti Roney and that was easy, because he was the most mistreated.
Tove and Vivica's romance actually reminded me of the relationship between Vince and Stuart in 'Queer As Folk (UK)' (1999). That unrequited feeling and the hurt that goes with seeing the person you love kissing and sleeping with everyone else but you, is not easy to deal with.
They torture you so you can't be apart from them and can't find someone new, whilst also keeping you at arms length for when you're needed.
And poor old Atos got to be the substitute in the meantime.
I realise that the film was made by the people from Jansson's country of origin, but I wanted something a bit more, to truly learn how the animations and stories she created were imagined and came to be. The European, art house cinema experience that was produced was fine as a lesbian romance film, but didn't have anything extra. It could have been anyones story.
I do find with a lot of Euro cinema that it is either filmed with a dull filter or made in a strange comedic way, this was the first. It wouldn't normally bother me, but even the party scenes were somewhat dreary and depressing, like no matter what, Tove could never be happy.
There was some really great swing music used as part of the soundtrack though, but even that didn't cheer things up for very long.
Maybe those with more knowledge of the artist may enjoy the film more than I did, but as a general viewer I didn't gain anything from the experience except perhaps the need to search eBay for The Moomins DVDs, because the story on its own was nothing new or exciting.
458.99/1000.