PLAY REVIEW

Director: Anne Mäkinen

Written by the working group of the project Tuulta purjeisiin

One free evening of mine I accidentally came across this play. For a long time I had been tempted to go and watch it. The idea of it was so interesting and I had heard so many praises about it that I knew I had to see it. Fortunately I did.

The basic idea is simple but brilliant: the script is written by a group of young people involved in this project, Tuulta purjeisiin. The project is for unemployed young adults who in some way or another need guiding in their lives (http://www.pori.fi/kulttuuri/tuultapurjeisiin-hanke.html). The script consists of stories from their own lives. The fascinating part is that an actor never performed in his own story.

Because of the extremely different kinds of stories in the play, the plot was not unambiguous. However there were some clear unifying factors between the scenes. There was some kind of a crisis in every story and all of them contained an attempt to criticize the society for the people’s unequal chances in succeeding in life which depend so strongly on the basis in which a person is born. I personally think they managed to share the thought very well. The crises in the stories varied between drug addictions, depressions, severe harassments and many other sad incidents.

Some stories stood out more than the others. The ones that got stuck in my head were Laura’s and Kaneli’s stories.

Laura was a sweet little girl whose parents got separated and her dear dad left her alone with her irresponsible mother. Six months later the dad was found dead lying under a tree. This story really touched me deeply because I couldn’t imagine losing my own dad in an accident. But this made me realise that world is a cruel place and these kinds of things can happen to anyone, anytime.

Kaneli, on the other hand, was a reckless rebel who just had a bad luck – and company. She had a habit of getting in strangers’ cars during a party night. Because of that habit, she unfortunately had to experience for instance a violent car crash and a ruthless rape. I think this was the most outrageous story of them all. I had a hard time trying to internalize that it is a true story, meaning that it actually happened to one of these amazing actors, these normal people with vulnerable minds.

Though the play was filled with sad storys, it had glimpses of humour here and there. I was especially delighted by the scene, where the actors were impersonating souls (but actually looked more like sperm cells!) in a programme called Soul of Finland. They were dealt different features like prizes even though they were something like ”drinking problem” and ”mentally ill parents”.

Focusing also on the technical aspect of the play, I noticed that the costumes of the actors were remarkably plain but effective. They were wearing only pure white clothes. This way they all seemed so innocent and equal. The lights were inventive and handled professionally. The set was almost nonexistent, but more would have been unnecessary. There was just the right amount of everything.

One thing that I realised as late as after the show was the fact, that the play consisted almost entirely of monologues. That sounds very boring, but I didn’t even notice it since the storyline was so intriguing all the time. It didn’t bother a bit.

The acting was suprisingly high quality considering the backgrounds of the actors and actresses. I know from experience that it isn’t easy in any way to express and empathise those kinds of heavy emotions, and that’s the thing I valued the most in this performance. It fealt real in my heart. It made me laugh and cry and fear many times. And most of all it made me think.

Lähteet:
http://www.pori.fi/kulttuuri/tuultapurjeisiin-hanke.html

The movie Frozen is an animated movie, loosely adapted from the tale ’The Snow Queen“ by Hans-Christian Andersen. With this movie, Walt Disney Pictures created a new great box office hit, directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. As it is an animated movie, there are just synchron speakers, but with Kirsten Bell, Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff it has a good cast anyway.

The movie tells the story about two princess orphans, Elsa, who has the power of conjuring ice, and Anna. Elsa can’t really control her power, so after a accident she excludes her sister and every other human except her parents, who drowned at a boat trip, from her life and at her crowning day she can’t hold herself back anymore, exposes her power and runs away. The movie differs from other animated, and especially other Disney Movies in that way, that one time, it’s not all about the big love which need to be found, it’s about the importance and strength of family, when Anna goes after her sister to bring her back home, while teaming up with the mountain man Kristof and taking a lot of risks. On her way, she meets speaking stones, a snow monster and snowman Olaf.

Considering the pressure that lays on a child movie to facilitate children the right values, Frozen was a comprehensive victory. With the snowman Olaf, who is on my opinion the real star of the movie, Disney brings along a lot of humour, and makes the movie a real success. But it also tells the story about betray and that you cannot trust everyone, even if he claims to be the big love of your life. Apart from the story, the whole animation and details are just stunning, for example, right on the beginning the workers on the ice or the sea storm scene, where the princesses parents are drowned, the kings town itself, the dresses, or the hairstyles, which are my favourite. The songs in this movie didn’t annoyed me, as it happens often when I watch child movies, I really wanted to join and sing with them. All in all, Frozen brings together important childhood lessons, emotional highs and a funny event for the whole family, in a light format where you can just have fun, no matter your age.

The Impossible film is based on true story of a tourist family in Thailand 2004 when the tsunami hit there. It is directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and written by Sergio G. Sánchez and María Belón. The genre is drama/thriller.The movie is also Oscar nominated for the best performance by an Actress in a leading role Naomi Watts. It is realised in 2012.

In the film there is a family including mother Maria (Naomi Watts), father Henry (Ewan McGregor) and three sons, Lucas (Tom Holland), Thomas (Samuel Joslin) and Simon (Oaklee Pendergast).They are spending their Christmas holiday in Thailand in Khao Lak. At the day three which was the Christmas day  they were at the pool enjoying from the sun and suddenly the weather turns windy and animals started acting weird. It took only a few seconds when the water of tsunami hit to the hotel where the family were.

After water had hit the hotel the family drifted apart. Luckily Maria who was wounded from trash in the water and Lucas found each other. They struggled in the water until some people found them and got them to the hospital. While at the same time Henry was with Thomas and Simon searching Maria and Lucas. In the end of the movie the family luckily got together and they got home.

 It was breathtaking to watch the movie and think of the people who were actually there when it happened 2004. The movie was so well made that you could imagine that you were there at the same situation fighting for your life and searching for your family. In my opinion it was very rough but worth of watching. I recommend this movie to everyone because I really liked it and it was so realistic and touching.There was a bit of special effects and they were realistic and amazing.

Source:  imdb.com

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 1 (directed by Francis Lawrence) is the third part of The Hunger Games –trilogy. The film is based on the novel Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.

I had also read the novels and, to be honest, at first I found it a bit odd, that the third part would be released in two parts. It almost seemed like that the producers were only thinking about the money.

The plot simplified is that Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) struggles with the question, wheather she should be the Mockingjay –the symbol of a rebellion- or not. She understands that if she stood for rebels, the President Snow (Donald Sutherland) would hurt her loved ones. This dilemma is the main theme of the film: is it right to reject the person you love for the common good?

In my opinion the film was suprisingly violent and rough. There wasn’t lack of big booms and special effects in the film. For sure that did the trick in the movie teather, but I’m not so sure how it works in small televisions  for example. There were also lots of bones, wars and dead human bodies in the movie. That was weird for the film, which is almost phenomenon among lots of teenagers. The love triangle between the main characters Katniss, Peeta (Josh Hucherson) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) received less attention in this part of the trilogy.

I was pretty satisfied with the acting of the leading stars. Especially Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hucherson managed to make their characters seem like they were about to go out of control.

The soundtrack of the Mockingjay part 1 was really good. Actually, the scene, were Katniss sang The Hanging Three –song, was the best part of the movie. The melody of the song was simple, and even a bit out of tune. It starts only Jennifer Lawrence singing the melody, but then a huge choir will join singing. Same time in the big screen a crowd of rebels marches towards the viewer. I think that was spectacular. I also found myself humming the song various times after waching the film.

To conclude, I think that Mockingjay part 1 had some good and touching scenes, along with the various effects and war parts. On the other hand, I’m still not convinced, why they wouldn’t have fitted with the rest of the scenes (that will be released in part two) into a one good movie.