Quarantaine

Director Kari Ketonen does a good job, getting things to eloquently fall into place. His silver screen take on a TV series has the original main cast onboard. This is one way to successfully avoid miss casting and participate in building a good reputation for home country produced films. The spectacle's main character is a corporate ladder climber. He finds himself in some sort of panic attack and is poor on positive traits. Meaning, we root for a loser who gambles, using his family as stakes and this makes his journey challenging to digest. This negativity spooks away the kind of comedy that I would appreciate. Hollywood uses this approach surprisingly often, so there must be an appreciative audience out there somewhere. My favorite moments are delivered by the supporting characters that sometimes are totally spot on.

We tag along with family and friends to a cottage village at midsummer. Especially the parent related themes are inventive and deliver a sensitive but vivid escapade. The well written parts for Tea Stjärne and Fredrik Hallgren help them stand out and to give their top notch comical timings. A further big plus is that the entire cast is charismatically enjoyable, with no exception. The very youngest charmer of the bunch, gets to mentor the main character. One of many decisions that brings a delightful freshness to the adventure. Most screen time has been devoted to a storyline that doesn't come across as the creators' forte´. The romancing teenager-storyline. It has been fumbled with so badly that it is a mood killer instead of romantic, as intended. My excitement sank like a midsummer pole into the swamp, about this unfortunate curve-ball to the younger stars. They are now easily blamed for the coughing story engine.

Iina Kuustonen does what really gives a lift - gets herself in top notch physical shape for her fitness role. On her side Mikko Töyssy pulls points with his captivating emotional ability and refreshingly spontaneous delivery. A detail, rarely intriguing to follow, is how director Aleksi Delicouras keeps his main character's husband so passionately in the shades. The man apparently has brilliant ideas when it comes to story supportive images. The writing takes efficient use of know-how about diet and lifting techniques, but Pekko also pens what makes the movie drop the weights on the toes. The obvious disjointed commercial break feel in the story, origins from an overfeed of information about the gym staff's personal lives. Cut ten minutes of those brutal endeavors from the movie's first half and the smooth flow has the audience leaning in. I tested so it is a proven fact.