Marital tension is not limited to any part of the world. Many couples experience problems that create stress and may lead to cheating. In his 2007 film "Black Ice," Petri Kotwica depicts a stereotypical cheating husband, however, he twists the story by adding a relationship between the hurting wife and oblivious mistress. The unique variation on this relatively familiar situation creates intrigue that transcends both language and culture, making "Black Ice" a captivating and edgy film for any audience, Finnish or not.A unique aspect of Black Ice is how quickly the plot gets going once the film has begun. After a short burst of romance between Saara and Leo, secrets start coming out and the tension begins. In some ways, leaving out the general introduction to Saara and Leo's relationship leaves something to be desired. It makes it difficult to relate to Leo at all because we are instantly introduced to his faults as a husband. However, this is very effective in that it puts us entirely on Saara's side, and introduces us to the discomfort of relational tension. Our lack of information somewhat reflects Saara's unfamiliarity with her new situation having been betrayed and ultimately separating from her husband. The genre of the film also contributes to the tension. While this story could be told through a simple drama or even romantic comedy, it is presented in the style of a psychological thriller. The characters are forced into uncomfortable and unusual situations that they press through given their unique circumstances. They face unwelcome friendships, relationships, sexual experiences, conversations, and more. Many people may struggle with the characters' actions, thinking that they, themselves, would deal with the situation more honestly as to avoid the deception and discomfort experienced, however the film does an excellent job of showing how very normal people can act wildly when put under extreme duress. In addition to style and plot is the soundtrack. Cellist Eicca Topinen's experience with Apocalyptica shows through in her intensely emotional instrumental score, which drives the film's tension home. Slow, minor chords blend and create an uncanny sense of unease, which becomes more obvious as the film progresses. The first noticeable instance of this musical discomfort is when Saara finds and follows Tuuli, and as each secret that comes out, the eerie theme comes back, stronger and stronger each time. While the whole film really supports the thrilling and uneasy impression, a few scenes are crucial. It starts with Saara finding the condoms at the very beginning. Her conflicting smile and admonition create a contradiction that sets the viewer on edge. This contradiction is further developed as we experience Saraa's ability to compartmentalize and create an intimate relationship with her husband's lover throughout the film. This ability to more or less let go of her emotions completely alienates her in addition toe the cheating Leo and Tulli. Other particularly tense moments include Saraa's first interaction with Tuuli, the morning at Tuuli's home where Saraa and Leo nearly cross paths, the party where Tuuli confronts Lea, Saraa's attempt to examine Tuuli which turns into a homosexual sex scene, Leo's death, Tuuli's attack on Saraa at the martial arts class, and Tuuli falling down the stairs. And those are just the especially tense moments. This goes to show how many small instances of tension are interwoven between them.One thing that the film could have done better was to organize some plot elements more cleverly. Tuuli seeing Lea and thinking it was Saraa, Saraa's restraining order keeping Tuuli out of the hospital, and sparring in the martial arts class all seemed fairly inevitable after the plot devices were introduced. While the setups were interesting and enthralling, they were at times predicable, which makes the film less fun to experience.A final element that I especially liked was how this film exemplified the idea that if someone wrongs you, they should take the heat, not their ignorant accomplices. For example, Leo is the one who is cheating. While Tuuli is knowingly helping him commit adultery, she is not personally connected with Saraa and thus has no emotional reason to stop. This is what Saraa seems to realize as the film progresses, which enables her relationship with Tuuli to flourish. Personally, I found the film impressive and exhilarating. The psychological thriller genre strongly appeals to me, as it makes you think about how twisted the seemingly ordinary human mind can be. No matter how much you think you can plan for life, you never know how things will actually transpire when they go south. While there are plot elements that could have been executed more cleanly, the film is representative of how realism can seem almost supernatural with the right circumstances, people and, in the case of film, music.

Vengeance is a dangerous game, never settling until someone pays the price. Black Ice sets the stakes high at the beginning of the film. A lone bike rider watches as a married couple fight outside their house, the players are chosen. The tragic tale of deceit begins, never backing down once it is rolling. Black Ice tells the story of Saara and how her marriage fell apart. Saara is a doctor who specializes in emergency births. Her husband, Leo, is an architecture professor with a long history of affairs that she is completely unaware of, until she finds out about Tuuli. Tuuli is a young architecture student and martial arts instructor who is in love with Leo and is about to pay a very high price for it. Black Ice focuses on Saara as she finds out about Tuuli and befriends her under a new identity, leading to a disastrous finale.Black Ice is a very well written movie in terms of what it has to offer, however, it moves at too slow of a pace to always keep the audience interested. As a thriller, there needs to be movement in the story in order to keep the movie intense and the subtle actions of characters relevant. Since Black Ice does not always keep the tension up, it can make situations that should be suspenseful, bland. I am not sure what the cause for this may be, perhaps it could that there is too much downtime or it could be that there is too little dialogue. There is very little talking in Black Ice, which is not necessarily a bad thing for a movie, there are a number of intense movies with little dialogue such as Drive. However, in the case of this film, not enough talking likely contributed to the slow pace because, unlike Drive, there is no real action to fill the downtime between the treacheries of the film. Black Ice certainly attempted to have some action by making Tuuli a martial arts instructor; however, out of four or five scenes that take place in her studio only one of them is intense. The movie would not necessarily be that much better if were to have lots of talking either. By focusing the film on the character's actions the audience is made to think for themselves about what the character is going to do next. Since so much of the film is silence, the music plays a very important role. The soundtrack for Black Ice is very fitting as it is primarily orchestral, with very dark tones and many string instruments. This style of music adds to the air of uncertainty and pain that the characters of the film are going through. Not forgetting the value of silence though, there are times where there is no audio at all in the film.Black Ice is filmed in a way that strongly supports the mood of the film. The lighting in the film is very dark; there are very few scenes that could be considered a remotely happy environment. The camera-work focuses a lot of time on the faces of the actors, showing the audience the emotions of the characters, which is incredibly important in Black Ice. Outi Mäenpää is the star of the film as Saara. As Saara she is made to play a variety of roles: that of a wife wanting revenge, a good friend to Tuuli, and that of a doctor. This is a tall task to ask for an actor to do and she does not do it flawlessly, but she does a good job. She does fine as a doctor but, as a friend and as someone wanting revenge there are times I feel she could have made the character deeper. Ria Kataja is the other central character of Black Ice as Tuuli. She also does not do a perfect job either, but she does make her character a bit more real than Saara. It could be that her character was meant to show more emotion than Saara but none-the-less I feel she did the best acting in the movie.Black Ice has a lot of good going for it: decent acting, good music, interesting plot, but, it suffers from a lack of pace necessary to keep it up to par with other thrillers. This means that Black Ice is certainly worth a chance to watch, but I would not expect everyone to find it worth finishing, it is just not exciting enough throughout.

Forget the much-hyped Bermuda Triangle - a Finnish love triangle is where all the danger lurks nowadays.First of all, if you're love-sick and slightly drunk, and you're in the middle of a Finnish Summer (meaning around -30 C) you'd better stay away from the wheel. And if you feel that jää musta drive drunk, make sure you don't crash into a tree, because taking a stroll through the countryside in a Finish night is not an option.It seemed for a moment that one of the triangle's members might lose their life in the tritest of movie clichés - a car accident - but fortunately the writer opts for a cleverer solution.What at first smells like a typical, dull relationship drama quickly develops into an entertaining guessing game: what the hell will happen next? M.Y. is often unpredictable, has a healthy number of plot-twists, and is always on the verge of becoming a thriller (but fortunately doesn't).Toward the end, it almost seems as if all the participants of the love triangle will snuff it. However, "only" one-third lose their life. And because a baby is born at the end, we still end up with a trio...The events tend to unfold a little on the far-fetched side toward the end, but never to the point of blatant hitchcockian or dePalmian insulting of the viewer's intelligence.

I don't know and I kinda guess the characters don't know either. It's more like not willing to lose something, than to actually love it/him/her. You could also say, Love is in the air ... but somehow no one can touch it.While it has it's comedic moments too, it's more a (black) drama. At first you might guess where this is going, it seems to go the usual path that any movie with a plot like this goes (look for the plot summary, if you will, I won't spoil anything), but it does turn out to change it's path. Sometime the changes are very ridiculous, so you might have to stay with it. If you click out at some of the outrageous plot changes, you won't like the movie. The end is complete out-there (i.e. crazy), but the movie builds up to that point, so it's not a complete surprise. Still some might be shocked/appalled by it ...