"What takes the lion's share of the story is Juha's drab life, his home is as antiseptic as his working place, the communication between him and Elli is occluded, he prefers a BDSM session over Elli's band performance in the school, which says a lot about what a parent he is, and we aren't informed if his wife's decease is an accident or not, is there marital strife in the play? Meanwhile, the fascinating Mona is utilized solely as an enigma, is playing dominatrix a side hustle for fast cash or stems from her id? It could be both but the answer is moot. Again, there is no pleasure in their role play, Juha only wants to experience the feeling of suffocation to re-live that drowning tragedy, to meet his dead wife again, underwater and breathless, not the frisson of ASMR or orgasm. And a po-faced Mona is a pro doing her routines with as less emotional attachment as possible, she doesn't seem to enjoy what she does, not for a minute, if anything, only some unspecified disturbance are looming beneath her spandex get-up. So, if the story sounds perversely erotic, Valeapää's execution is rather somber, un-sexy and queasy (fingernail-pulling and tooth-pulling are far from the nexus of BDSM), and when Mona's professional facade predictably cracks, we are not any the wiser."
read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.
read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.