Bret Mann Never once was there a dull, uneventful moment during the film, "Black Ice". Finish director, Petri Kotwica successfully pieces together an exceptional, suspenseful, and riveting film about Saara, a middle-aged woman, seeking revenge on her cheating husband, Leo, an architect and professor, and Tuuli, the student and "girlfriend" of Leo. The ultimate question asked is, How far does one go to achieve revenge? Saara finds out about Leo's affair the evening of her birthday, and the next day goes to visit him at his office to find an e-mail from Tuuli, the young student Leo has a "relationship" with. Saara finds a picture of Tuuli and where she lives on the campus and immediately goes to find her and follow her, ending up at the karate class Tuuli instructs. Without much thought, Saara has joined the beginner's class and from this initial encounter, the two women form a seemingly strong relationship, although Saara has introduced herself to Tuuli as a Christa Ericcson, in attempt to cover up her true identity. As this relationship progresses, Leo is attempting to juggle his relationships with Tuuli and Christa, eventually leading to utter chaos and devastation in each of their lives.Throughout "Black Ice" director, Petri Kotwica, draws upon various themes throughout the film, such as infidelity, sex/gender, revenge, and betrayal. While each of these major ideas are constantly seen during the movie, the theme of betrayal seems to be emphasized, as it was the basis of many decisions each character made amidst the suspenseful events. Including Saara's discovery of her husbands affair, Leo ending his relationship with Tuuli, his flirtatious actions at the costume party, and Tuuli's realization of Christa's real identity, each of these moments and others depict the extent to which humans prioritize their needs and feelings before others regardless of the effect it has on the people around them. In congruence with the overarching theme of betrayal, the reoccurring idea of seeking revenge drives many of the events that end in betrayal. As Saara seeks revenge on Tuuli for sleeping with Leo, the seemingly strong and "true" friendship Saara (Christa) and Tuuli form is completely destroyed, leaving Tuuli amidst feelings of complete betrayal by Saara. The revenge and betrayal we witness in "Black Ice" constantly reminds the audience just how brutal humanity can be when people are stuck in extremely emotional states.The love triangle story line is a perfect situation to be able to explore humans in instances of revenge and betrayal. While Saara (Christa) is forming a strong connection to Tuuli, Saara'a love for Leo is back and fourth the more she learns about her husband's secrets, as Tuuli's love for Leo is crushed and slowly fades once he breaks up with her and then see's him at the costume party with other students. Leo attempts to juggle both of his relationships, eventually ending in betrayal by both of them. In comparison to Hollywood films, there is nothing quite like the love triangle depicted in "Black Ice".The plot was extremely interesting and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, impatiently waiting to see what would happen next. The skillful use of foreshadowing by Kotwica gets the viewer guessing what will happen next, however the creative and unique plot made it so the unraveling of the events was always unexpected. Throughout the film, I never knew what was going to happen next, which carried the plot along enabling the suspenseful and thrilling scenes to build on each other, ultimately making the end of the film to leave the viewer in shock. The acting and story line was extremely well done and added to the element of suspense, but I think the music and sound effects used throughout the film that truly instilled suspenseful and thrilling feelings in me as the events unfolded. The music allows for the viewer to connect emotionally with what was happening on screen. For example, while Saara was stalking Tuuli in the beginning of the movie, from being in her residence hall on campus to following her as she rides her bike to the karate studio, the suspenseful, slightly creepy music made me feel as if I was stalking Tuuli as well. The connection the music creates with the audience and events on screen amplifies the emotional response the viewer has to each scene.Finish films being known for their tragic and devastating endings, "Black Ice" not only captures devastation in the end, but also a shock factor triggering much emotion that makes it a must see.

troche-5 PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER, the Finnish movie "Black Ice" (Kotwica) thrilled us in 2008. A dangerous love triangle that goes from bad to worse is filled with deception, suspense and an imminent cat-fight. The main three actors were picked perfectly for their roles; Saara (Outi Mäenpää) is a middle aged doctor who seems to be happily married to Leo (Martti Suosalo) who is an architect/professor. Leo is having an affair with the much younger Tuuli (Ria Kataja) who happens to be one of his students. Saraa becomes suspicious of her husband as she finds a packet of condoms missing. By pure luck while visiting Leo after a rough day at work she stumbles upon an inappropriate email Leo received from a student which happens to be Tuuli. Instead of confronting Leo like an average, sane human being she decides to do a little investigating and follows her around. Tuuli leads her to a gym where she teaches KARATE!! This scene immediately put a smile on my face because I for saw an epic cat fight. Saraa decides to take Tuuli's karate class and after class she hides Tuuli's bike so she'll need a ride home. After this point these two women are inseparable as Saraa creates a new identity to prevent Tuuli from finding out who she is. Get ready for the deception and interconnecting story lines as the three take turns hanging out with each other.Deception is the most reoccurring theme seen throughout the movie mostly between Tuuli and Saraa. Saraa befriends Tuuli so she can learn first hand about her relationship with Leo and possibly save the marriage. This was a great twist in the story because you have the Antagonist and Protagonist together but only one is aware of the truth. Saraa does a great job convincing Tuuli how genuine she is but really has an agenda the whole time. Throughout the movie they have some close encounters with Leo which kept me in anticipation for when the truth would come out. For me the interactions between Saraa the wife and Tuuli the home wrecking college girl are what really make this movie.There is also a love triangle that also goes with the deception in this Finnish flick. As Tuuli's relationship with Leo disintegrates she becomes more and more dependant on Saraa and her companionship. Tuuli and Saraa start hanging out a lot and this creates tension between Tuuli and Leo by causing Leo to become jealous. This is the result of Leo finding a used condom in Tuuli's room from when Saraa had sex the night before. Tuuli calls Saraa to have her explain to Leo what happen because he didn't believe her.I think its safe to say that the name of the movie was a theme in itself as black ice in real life is dangerous and misleading like the characters in this movie. Black ice is transparent so when driving it looks like the road is fine but actually it's covered by a slippery sheet of ice. Just like in the movie on the outside the characters seem fine but underneath they have serious issues.While watching the opening scene of the movie for a second time I realized how important it is because it introduces the three main characters that eventually get wrapped up in a love triangle. This scene helps set the belief to the audience that Saara and Leo are very passionate and still in the honeymoon phase. As you watch the movie you find out that this is very misleading and the director does a great job setting this up. Also, I think the end of the clip is where Leo crashes his car and eventually walks off and freezes to death. So with that being said the settings in the 1st scene are actually the same as one of the last. The ending caught me off guard but in a good way and I think it was a fitting way to end it, so if you're looking for a happy ending look some where else.The camera shots to me were very dramatic in this scene especially seeing it for the second time. In one scene you have two people having passionate sex and in the other a girl riding her bike in the cold winter. The focus of the camera during the sex scene uses a lot of close ups on the limbs of the couple showing how intense it is, it goes from sex to heavy foreplay and then to Saraa's face showing her enjoyment. All this is going on as Tuuli is riding the through the winter and the camera follows her journey while showing glimpses of her face as she struggles through the harsh weather."Black Ice" is a very interesting and entertaining movie that is worth watching more than once and would have success in America if redone in English. Watching two woman compete for the love of one man is an idea intriguing enough just to watch it and I guarantee this movie will not disappoint.

Erik Olson In Petri Kotwica's film Black Ice, the viewer is able to watch first hand as Saara, the wife of an architect named Leo, infiltrates into the life of Tuuli, who at the time was in the midst of a long affair with Leo. Personally, I thought that this movie was excellent and kept the viewer between being on the edge of our seat while being very uncomfortable as we watched the plot unfold. Throughout the movie, Saara devises a plan to get back not only at Leo, but at Tuuli as well, as she pretends to be Tuuli's friend and helps her to break up with Leo. There were many interesting twists throughout the movie as well as scenarios that we assumed would have resulted in a different outcome, which made the movie a hit in my mind.Black Ice is a movie about a middle aged couple (Saara and Leo) who live in Finland and our celebrating her birthday at their house. The movie opens with both individuals being fully nude and engaging in sexual intercourse. While this is happening, we are transitioned to another scene where Tuuli is biking, of which she ends up at Leo's house to spy on him. This is symbolic because we are introduced to the love triangle and this is one of the ways Tuuni discovers that Saara is Leo's wife. The scene then jumps back to the birthday party where Saara finds condoms in Leo's guitar case and thus the whole story begins to unfold.Saara then begins a search for Tuuli and eventually follows her to a martial arts class, where she enters and begins to take sessions. She then hides Tuuli's bike and offers her a ride home, which one could say is the start to their long and controversial friendship.As the movie rolls on, we see that Saara and Tuuli are building a strong friendship and even mess with Leo a little bit a parties when they are in costumes. The movie takes its biggest turning point when Saara finds out that Tuuli is pregnant, and she knows that if she wants to keep Leo, that she would have to do something about the baby. We are then a first hand witness to Saara drugging Tuuli and what appears to be a way of checking whether or not she is truly pregnant as Saara lubes up her hand and inserts it into her vagina. Tuuli wakes up and the scene then turns into an awkward lesbian kissing and groping session. Upon entering the bathroom, Tuuli discovers many aspects of the house are similar to those she had seen in the drawings of Leo and everything begins to fall into place. Tuuli ends up driving away without seeing Leo and he begins to chase her in his car after accidentally sipping on a drugged drink she left behind. He then drives off the road and ends up walking a distance and freezing to death.In the end of the movie, Saara is called to perform a surgery on Tuuli (randomly), where she could have easily killed her or the baby or even both, but ends up saving both of their lives. This was the most uncomfortable scene for me due to the fact that after seeing the build up of events up to this point, I figured that Saara would have killed her and taken advantage of the situation. Obviously I predicted wrongly.As far as how the movie was filmed, I feel that the use of camera angles and close up shots made the viewer feel like we were actually apart of each scene. This is specifically the case when Leo and Saara are having sex in their bed. The distance the scene was being shot from made me feel like I was sitting in their living room watching the whole thing. Another example of the excellent film techniques used in the film was the use the close up shots and extreme close up shots in the sex scenes. It made me feel like I was actually witnessing real sex and could feel the emotions in the air.A common theme among Nordic films is the idea of secretiveness, which I found to be the most prevalent theme in this film. Between the affair and Saara and Tuuli's friendship, the whole movie was based around the secretiveness of its characters.Overall, I would rate the film Black Ice an 8 out of 10 Stars. I thought the plot was very interesting and kept the viewer satisfyingly uncomfortable throughout the whole movie. I thought the acting was good, and the cinematic techniques were better than average. I would definitely recommend this movie to those interested in watching an uncomfortable adultery film. The main downside of the movie for me was that I had to read the subtitles and could not put 100% of my concentration on the film itself. Other than that, I thought the movie was great.

native_girl333 Black Ice is an ice-cold story of love, passion and obsession. It is a love triangle with lots of disturbing angles.Saara (brilliant Outi Mäenpää) and Leo (wicked Martti Suosalo) are happily married. Or so it seems. Saara will soon realize that her perfect marriage is a charade and just as thin as ice. Leo has an affair with young and talented Tuuli (fresh and talented Ria Kataja) who is a student of Leo. Saara starts to shadow Tuuli. Saara wants to know what kind of woman is taking her place. Tables turn and Saara forms a tight friendship with Tuuli. The solution can't lead to anything good...Petri Kotwica has written and directed this drama with such realism that it is somewhat repulsive. The love triangle is one of the most used elements but Kotwica manages to make both of the women in the story seem equal. Leo's character is nicely controversial which reflects brilliantly trough his women. It brings us to the question that why women always fall for the "bad guy" and is there anything, even the slightest good in that. The acting is strong. Both Outi Mäenpää and Ria Kataja deliver their roles fantastically. It is no wonder that Mäenpää won a Finnish Oscar, Jussi-statue for her powerful performance. The soundtrack made by Eicca Toppinen from Apocalyptica supports the Finnish, snowy and melancholic scenery superbly. Very recommendable Finnish drama!