Harjunpää & pahan pappi (2010) Reviews

• God is almighty.If Satan is in me-then that is God's will.

  elsinefilo2011-04-23

  Timo Harjunpää (Franzén Pahat Pojat) is a detective in the Helsinki police department.He loses his daughter in a murder when he happens to be late to pick her up. The family tries to come to terms with the loss of their daughter but Timo becomes estranged from his wife (Irina Björklund played Ingrid in "The American (2010)") when he sees that his wife is blaming him somehow. At the same time,the city is in the throes of inexplicable multiple killings in the subway system. The deeply agitated, embittered Harjunpää is put on this case but he finds himself torn between between doing his duty and seeking for vengeance when the release of his daughter's murderer is on the horizon. In a way, the movie promises some gory violence, action and tension. I can't really say that it fulfills it properly. First of all, the plot sounds so predictable. The movie does not really trot out of the old clichés. The homicide detective who's been assigned to the case is an embittered cop whose marriage is falling apart. The murderer has to have had a traumatic,agonizing childhood to feel embittered against life. His father had to be a preacher, a drunk, a fornicator and a violent man so that his son would turn out to be a some vigilante who could avenge the plight of women who are beat up by their abusive husbands. "Priest of Evil" may be the movie for those viewers who like anything about murderer vs. cop stories but it's not really the movie you would look into if you are into a smart,unpredictable storyline, memorable quotes and dynamic, creative tension.

• Very close to good Scandinavian lonely-cop films

  BeneCumb2013-07-04

  In the world, Finns are known to be sluggish and calm people - and we see plenty of them in most Finnish films. Harjunpää ja pahan pappi is a nice exception, thanks to talented Peter Franzén and Sampo Sarkola, above all, whose characters' reactions to injustice and violence are not insensitive or arid. Although being on separate sides of the law, their "psyche" types are rather similar, but the reasons to act are still different... The plot has several twists and turns, some issues are explained via flashbacks; the ending is trivial, but not annoying, and when the credits appear you realise that you have seen a decent psychological thriller, in the line with good similar films from Sweden or Denmark. In short, the film in question is one the best 21st century Finnish crime films. Moreover, I as a Finnish-speaker and having visited Turku/Åbo several times, had a nice joy of recognition.

• A very good crime thriller

  kosmasp2012-11-26

  The setting reminded me a bit of a game called "Heavy Rain". It's not the same, but the vibe has some similarities. The main actor is really good and we have an interesting interaction between him and other characters. The main bad guy has a great motive: Plus he doesn't see himself as a bad guy (a thing that other movies have also explored). Interesting themes (redemption, revenge and more) get tangled in a complex but still pretty reasonable scheme of things. It never gets too complicated and some people might feel this is too predictable (which it sort of is). Not everyone might like the way it ends, but it seems inevitable to me. A more than decent effort and a very tense movie

• This is fantastic

  WakenPayne2011-12-04

  In Australia Finnish films are hard to come by, After watching this film I'm wondering why. I am somebody who has read the book by Matti Joensuu and I liked both. The movie has extreme changes from the piece of literature, maybe that I watched the movie first I feel as if I am okay with the changes they made, I feel the changes were for the better to add more depth to the characters. Peter Franzén is perfectly casted as the lead character but he is not the highlight performance. In my opinion Sampo Sarkola is a great antagonist 100% believable. If I said all the actors that were believable I would list the entire cast but the performances that I liked the most (that I didn't mention) were Jenni Banerjee, Irina Björklund and Rosa Salomaa. The list goes on. I can't recommend this Crime film more, out of the Finnish films that I have seen my personal favourite is Jade Warrior. In Memory of Matti Joensuu, Author of the original book October 31, 1948 - December 4, 2011.

• Unrealistic and overplayed

  airsnob2014-04-22

  I'm not sure why this movie got great reviews. It's a big budget film, that is for sure. For me, movies have to make sense. Even when Zombies are running around; the key is I BELIEVE it for an hour and a half. Even with the large budget, the great actors , kinda a cool plot, the holes were enormous. Way too stylized, like this movie is trying way too hard to be cool. For instance, the police department. Have you ever seen police men that look like the metal version of GQ magazine covers? No. Either have I. Other holes? No police officer has a radio. Like to call in for back up. Oh ya. They are finding out where the serial killer is- and- going after him alone, with never a call in to say, " hey. I found the most wanted man in Finland. Ya. I'm in his living room. He just disappeared somewhere in this house, and I'm gonna go try to find him." Nope. This detective, in his leather pants is going after him alone. The movie is filled with extreme examples of idiocy like this through out. Also- way too much character development. The movie is about a serial killer. Not a distraught wife ( who by the way, also makes no sense. She apparently is holding into a major two year grudge against her super awesome husband for being a total hero the night he was supposed to pick up his daughter at a concert and was a little late , which that also was never said, I just read it in the synopsis and was like " OH!!! That's why she was so mad!" ) the whole thing just wasn't believable, the motives, the arguments, the snobby daughter, the daughters vicious murderer, who was just some metal head on a RACE BIKE , who while hanging out with ten other complete metal head psychopaths , decided to rape and brutally murder the daughter at a concert, for absolutely no reason, and THEN, gets out of prison, a mere TWO years later. Then, the husband/ father / detective follows him and kidnaps him and takes him back to the exact spot his daughter was murdered, to kill him ( I guess?) but mysteriously, his faithful and beautiful partner ( who he never has sex with , even though his wife hasn't had sex with him since his daughter died, figures out by osmosis exactly where he is and what he is doing by finding an article on his desk about the release date of the daughters killer and goes and saves him from making a huge mistake at the last minute. Ya. Right. I pretty much think that everyone who liked this movie is a total moron, or was smoking something when they watched it. Skip it. And I love Scandinavian film. I was more than disappointed.