by Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Amanda Jansson, Desmond Eastwood, Linus Troedsson, Tony Doyle, Beppe Lantz, Tobias Zilliacus
Intro:
Sincere yet sentimental…
While not the first adaptation of Anni Blomqvist’s novels, Finnish Director Tiina Lymi’s interpretation of Stormskerry Maja is definitely ambitious. It’s an epic romantic period drama, immersing viewers in the rugged charm of two newlyweds building a life for themselves on a remote rocky reef (or skerry) during the mid-19th Century. At first a private Eden for the lovers, their peace becomes threatened by the outbreak of the Crimean War, and the unwelcome arrival of the English Navy infiltrating their sanctuary.
With sweeping shots of icy seas and storm-lashed shores, juxtaposed against intimate close-ups, warm and inviting, cinematographer Rauno Ronkainen’s camera moves fluidly between two worlds, beautiful and frightening all at once.
Capturing the harsh yet poetic realities of coastal life, the film centres on Maja (Amanda Jansson), a young farmer’s daughter with a vivid imagination and more of a stubborn streak than is proper for her devout Christian upbringing. Betrothed to stoic fisherman Janne (Linus Troedsson) against her will, Maja is whisked away from her family and brought to Stormskerry, where she soon learns to embrace both the punishing aspects of her new life by the sea and, something far more frightening, the possibility of a love so true that it defies every rule she’d ever known.
Maja and Janne’s burgeoning romance is portrayed with delicate nuance, his calm and steady demeanour the smouldering ember to her wildfire of emotion. Lymi luxuriates in the telling of it, to the point where at almost three hours, the film’s run time threatens to spill over into miniseries territory.
Despite their story spanning decades however, little is done to visibly age the characters beyond some additional greys in their hair and perhaps a slightly more frumpy wardrobe. Refreshing as this might be in the age of CGI, where characters are being both aged and de-aged at the drop of a hat, it does still cause a moment or two of disconnect when the 34-year-old lead actress plays the doting mother to children in their late teens or early 20s.
Sincere yet sentimental, the film does an admirable job of distilling a five-volume book series, while also adding embellishments. The war hits far closer to home in Lymi’s film, a conflict which allows for courageous character choices. Resilient in the face of war, of nature, and of fate itself, Maja’s story is a testament to love and its endurance, and what it truly means to be unafraid.
