The Finnish Line

This is not only one of my all-time favourite Hallmark Christmas movies, it is one of my all-time favourite Hallmark movies of any theme. In fact, apart from the expected romance, and family love, this was not a 'typical' Hallmark. Many have been distinctive by their excellent direction and/or quality performances, this story has a beautifully written screenplay that is perfectly executed acting. The actors brought brand new character types that were intriguing and unexpected. It's also fun to learn about other cultures and customs, in this case, those of Finland. I guarantee we will be looking forward seeing this movie replayed every year.

I actually had to make an account just to make this review because I can't believe what I even just watched.

No Finnish actors hired for this, no one knew how to speak or pronounce Finnish, some of the cultural facts were just blatantly incorrect and some of the town names even were spelled wrong. I don't think anyone Finnish was actually involved in writing or fact checking this mess. You know none of the Finnish characters even had Finnish names? At one point they butchered the grammar of something so bad that it sounded pretty lewd to an actual Finnish ear, which at least was hilarious even tho surprising.

I mean it's a Hallmark movie so what are we expecting but I think the minimum requirement when using another country and culture as a setting is to honor that and not use it as a butchered trope that you probably only asked chatgpt about. If you made a movie that was set in Japan would you hire Russians to pretend to be Japanese while speaking butchered Japanese off paper while your American white girl adventures there?

It's a shame because I don't think the acting for the leads was bad and the story was almost cute. I was so excited to see a foreign movie about Finland too. The girl best friend character is very cute and supportive, and of course the dogs were completely adorable and the relationship building and chemistry was fine. But I could not in good conscience recommend this to anyone who actually cares, talk about cultural appropriation.

I had high hopes for this movie, but as someone of Finnish heritage I was ultimately disappointed. Overall the acting was ok but the Finnish accents were poor and the Finnish language pronunciations were mostly incorrect. They also referred to Finland as part of Scandinavia, which is incorrect. It is a Nordic country but not Scandinavian. They also left out some of the best parts of Finnish culture and traditions that would have added greatly. I would have liked to see actual Finnish actors and someone writing the script who actually knows Finland. It was a poor portrayal that could have been more authentic instead of like Finland was Googled for 5 minutes.

I loved Benedikt Gröndal as the Finnish cousin and veterinarian Lavi. His comedy and highlights of Finnish holiday traditions was the best part of this Hallmark holiday romance built around a dog sled race.

Kim Matula plays Anya Kivelä, a legacy dog sled racer who has come to Finland to the home of Santa in order to race in the race which was her deceased father's last. And to the reporters' delight she is racing against the same man who beat her father in that infamous race. Along the way Anya meets family members from her father's native Finland and she has supporting her in her corner her best friend and business manager, Elyse.

I absolutely loved seeing the dogs and hearing about the Finnish traditions...but really it was Lavi who I enjoyed the most.

I don't know why this movie got such a good review rating. While I like the story I just can not believe that they shot this movie in such a beautiful country and blurred out all the landscape scenery. Are you kidding me? Why why would you do that? Do you need lessons in photography? Those scenery shots should have been shot at F-5.6 to F-13 and not at the F-stop your camera person done them in it makes many of the scenes look terrible. Now it looks like any suburb in any country even the not so nice states in the USA. That said I think the acting was great and also the story it's one of those animal stories that warms the heart and makes you happy on a gloomy day. I wish there were many more like it.