Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

rven3 Having only just finished watching this film, I can say that I consider it to be the most emotionally authentic story I have viewed in a very long time. This is a truly beautiful film, and I was not in any way distracted by having to follow the story by reading sub-titles. All actors are to be commended for their performances, but special mention must go to child actor Topi Majaniemi for an outstanding performance as Eero, the child who is sent by his Finnish mother to Sweden for the remainder of the war. He is in almost every scene - a big ask for a child - and he never ever wavers; I hope we see more of him in the future.As well as Majaniemi, special mention also must go to Maria Lundqvist, who played the child's troubled foster mother, and also Michael Nyqvist (who can do no wrong IMO) as the kindly, but often out-of-his-depth foster father, and the one to first befriend Eero in his foreign environment. All three actors give such realistic performances that I kept forgetting that I was watching a work of fiction, albeit based upon true stories. I felt that I was being allowed into this private world of these people trying to find their way through a situation none of them asked for, and so I had better be quiet and respectful.And this is beautiful to watch, set chiefly in coastal rural Sweden, complete with rolling green hills and white-washed buildings. Cinematography and Direction of this film as so flawless as to be invisible; the film just flows gently, but is never ever boring.Just one piece of advice........have some tissues handy, as it is an emotional journey, but without any of the emotional manipulation found in many English-speaking movies.I give it 12 stars!

ejs-80 "Mother of Mine" tells a story about nine-year-old Eero (Topi Majaniemi) who is one of the war children who were sent from Finland to Sweden in order to escape the war against USSR. It is a very hearty film, and especially at the beginning, when the ruthlessness of the war begins to show its ugly head, it contains downright heartbreaking material.On the other hand, those parts where grown-up Eero (played by Esko Salminen) converses about the past with his mother feel a bit too much like commentaries, and they might have benefited from a little more liveliness. On the first viewing I thought also that Eero's relationship with the foster mother Signe (Maria Lundqvist) doesn't ever really open and warm up like the narration implies later. However, on the second viewing I noticed that the scene in the graveyard is honestly trying to deal with this point. So that part of the theme is not completely left undeveloped.Michael Nyqvist as Hjalmar Jönsson does a pretty good job, but one of the best virtues of the film is the fact that director Klaus Härö has been able to cultivate an extremely believable Eero-boy from young Topi Majaniemi. Praises also belong to the numerous incredibly beautiful scenes, of which one of the finest is a shot where a bus comes from the left side of the panorama picture and continues its drive to a stop in the middle of desolation with Eero as its only passenger traveling towards his new home.In short, "Mother of Mine" is a recommendable movie for everyone who considers him-/herself to be a friend of honest and straightforward drama. See it by yourself or show it to the mother of yours.

andhol-1 I used to think that it's silly to cry over something like a movie and that it's only girls that do so - until now. I felt like being torn apart when realizing the pain Signe felt when she realized that there was nothing in the world she could do to keep Eero.It was beautiful to see the development of the bond between Signe and Eero, and it made the outcome so hard to bear. It was easy to understand how deep wounds were left in the souls of the Finnish children that were sent to "safety" in Sweden during WWII.This is a film everybody should see. It shows a depth I have NEVER seen on the movie screen.Thank you Klaus Haro!

henben I sat down in the salon, at the grand opening in Sweden, not knowing a thing about this movie. It wasn't until one of the movies producers told us, the audience, what it was about that I realized what kind of movie I was about to see and - most important - that this is a story that had not yet been told on the big screen and that this was a story that needed to be told. I couldn't agree more, it's just a shame that this was the particular story that they chose to tell. Parts of this movie is absolutely brilliant - the scenery, the cinematography and the actors. Oh, the actors! Michael Nyqvist, Maria Lundqvist and the young Topi Majaniemi are superb, utterly superb, it's in the script this movie fails and mainly on one pivotal point. In order for this movie to work you have to feel the anguish of young Eero, you have to feel his heart breaking when his mother sends him away to Sweden. And you do. But you also have to feel his heart breaking when he is sent back to Finland. This you don't do and that's because you don't get to feel the connection between Eero and his foster-mother Signe. When Eero and Signe first meet she doesn't want anything to do with him. She alienates herself from him, pushes him away. Towards the end she shows genuine love towards him, the thing is...I'm not aware of when this shift occurs. There aren't enough scenes in which we see them bonding. Suddenly they just...do. And this is where the movie fails. Now, please remember what I said earlier. There are many things about this movie that are superb. The main thing being how the part of Eero is written and portrayed. A lot of films have a tendency to make children more mature than they really are, this movie doesn't make that mistake. Eero is a child and acts like one too. Not knowing why he feels the way he does he simply acts out his frustration in ways that a child would - not by sitting his foster-mother down and offering up wisdom befitting a 70-year old (which is all too common in movies such as these).So, worth watching, just don't expect to get a wholly encompassing movie about what all Finnish war-children went through.