Levottomat 3 - kun mikään ei riitä

Kieslowski's colour trilogy must had been some sort of an inspiration to all the unattached trilogies we're having these days. Producer Markus Selin is one of the most influential producers in the Finnish film scene and is often credited as the man who brought Finnish commercial cinema back after some 40 years of absence in late 1990's.

The so called Restless-trilogy was meant to be a series of films directed by young directors about the state of the young adults in Finland. A great subject and a great idea although one could see the commercial aspects of this money-making early 30's demographics shine through.

The first part of the trilogy "Levottomat" (Restless, 1999)can be seen as a huge success for Finnish cinema being controversial, sexy and very much tapped into the moment in time as well as the subject. The second part "Minä ja Morrison" (Me and Morrison, 2001) was slightly dimmer success as for some reason it wasn't marketed as the second part. The film and acting were good, though the story ended a little suddenly and the deeper aspects of modern young adulthood were more absent than in "Levottomat".

The third part i.e. "Levottomat 3" (Restless 3, 2004) was a complete let-down of the trilogy. Huge skin-deep marketing, poor acting, poor dialogue, poor story and safe and "pop" choices in casting made sure that the audience felt sick about the whole trilogy. It is told that screenwriters resigned throughout the project and in the end it was just pure bad luck that the last one's name ended up in the credits. Whereas the earlier parts got their young directors to a beginning of a promising career, this one must had been the worst call-card for the poor director who obviously didn't know what sort of a money-making machinery she was getting into.

Sure I should write something about the film itself. Well, dialogue in "Oxford Finnish" is the first thing to take you of the mood of getting into the story. The story itself about sex-addicted young mother getting de-railed for her ambitions has a certain contemporary touch to it but the solid numb acting between her and his husband and her and the new lover of doom leaves everyone stone cold. The plot shows how things get from bad to worse and then a shimmering happyish ending.

I think the only positive thing in this film was to tie it to the contemporary Helsinki scenery at the time when the nations biggest building project (Kamppi commercial and traffic centre) was being built right in the middle of the city. Well, that's about it.

Good start to mid , but it gets stupid and really bad in the end. and i think only END made the movie worse. because its not satisfying . because instead of taking this issue to morality / reality / Logical , it turned into feminism. like woman suffer from desire , she fulfilled her desire in forbidden way , she is a victim , she regret it and she is the winner in the end. so that makes the movie worse.

if there is a logical ending then maybe people would like it. because "Adultery / cheating always ends bad" it destroys any relationship , no matter whats the excuse or reasons. it never repair the trust.

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the worst part in the end was, when she got kicked from house by husband, instead of regret or remorse , she goes for another one night stand, thats a really stupid idea here.

and another idea or flaw in movie. when wife said to husband in hospital" oh yeah i banged many men and every night But i still love and i always have been" wtf is that mean?

that dumb husband should dumb the trash and move on with kids. that would be better ending.

I really enjoyed this film and I agree with the reviewer who said that you can't just put in plot twists for the sake of it. The issue of addiction and its destructive power was dealt with very well and to overplay it or make it more 'sensational' would devalue the issues that were raised within the film.

It was interesting to see an addiction like this from a female point of view for a change, and it was good to see a woman with a life like an advert descend into an addiction that could undo all the work she had put in to having a life that we all supposedly dream of (marriage, 2.4 kids, beautiful house, great career, plenty of money). And in this day and age of product placement, do we really care that they drove Audi cars?

Right, first I have to say that I have never before commented a movie because I haven't felt that I need to. This movie made an exception. I kind of liked the original Levottomat, as I could identify myself with the main character and I also thought the story and casting were quite good. This of course doesn't mean the sequels are equally good, not at all. Usually the sequels simply are cheap imitations and fail miserably.

Levottomat 3 proves my case only partially. The story behind all the glitter, bad directing and bad acting, feels all right at the first glance. Although, I would think the idea of female sex addict isn't yet approved by the great public (not even by all females). Whatever the case, the story is semi decent.

The same can't be said about casting, choice of actors and directing. I wouldn't like to be disrespectful against miss Grönlund or miss Virtanen, but one of them or both together ruined this movie. The "sex doctor/psychologist" performs equally bad and is extremely unbelievable. Show me a psychologist who would judge someone after just few words said in a emotional storm (or as in the case of this movie, a slightly darker cloud, not a storm)? The actors equal to products of human product replacement. Simply horrible and unbelievable.

As I said in the beginning, the story is quite all right. The only flaw is that the movie is simply unbelievable. I entertain myself with the idea of this being directed and acted by someone else. I smiled slightly for the thought of Kati Outinen being "Jonna" and Sakari Kuosmanen being "Niklas". I would definitely buy the whole thing bit easier. I wish it was set in a bit less glamorous atmosphere in the first place. Come on, an architect and a big ad guru? Nobody believes that. How about clerk and accountant? Car repairman and housewife? Waitress and construction worker? Anyway, one of the worst ones I have seen: 4/10

I disagree with the previous reviewer about the ads.. I think the product placement in this movie is done with a good taste and it's not too obvious compared to many other movies.

Anyway, the movie itself could have been so much better with a better script. The movie is well-directed, actors are good and good-looking, atmosphere is fitting, and basically all the elements for a good film are there - BUT the script is totally unoriginal, predictable and boring. The screenwriter should have included some surprising twists to the plot. As it is, it resembles more a propaganda film for conservative moralists than an entertaining, fictional movie.