Black Ice (Musta jää) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	99:30 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Petri Kotwica
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Outi Mäenpää Ria Kataja Martti Suosalo Ville Virtanen Sara Paavolainen Netta Heikkilä Väinö Heiskanen Philipp Danne Matti Laine Emilia Sinisalo Kirsi Ylijoki Marjut Maristo Anne von Keller
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Eicca Toppinen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Finnish Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Black Ice (Musta Jaa) is a 2008 drama/thriller from Finland. Aside from selection for the Berlin Film Festival it won 6 Finnish Oscars for Best Film , Best Actress, Best Direction, Script, Music and Editing.

Black ice is the phenomenon where airless ice freezes over the road surface making it look to all the world like plain tarmac when in fact it is a dangerous slippery surface. The name is apt for this film which plays wild and dark, with both characters and audience having to constantly check their footing.

Saara (Outi Maenpa) is a middle aged Helsinki gynaecological surgeon. She is comfortable in her life and her career and happily, if not ecstatically, married to Leo (Martti Suosalo). He is an architect and lecturer - plus he is having an affair with the much younger Tuuli (Ria Kataja). In a flash moment of discovery Saara learns of his indiscretions when she finds that there are condoms missing from his packet!

Leo denies any indiscretion and Saara is plagued with doubts. On an off-chance visit to his office she finds an email to him from Yuuli and locates her picture and address on his student database.

Instead of throwing a fit of rage and confronting her husband with the knowledge of her rival she internalises her pain and forms , well half forms, a plan to befriend the young vixen. She follows Tuuli to a Tae Kwan Do class and is suddenly confronted with a choice - does she join in the class (which Tuuli instructs) and start the game or does she walk away. She joins in and befriends Tuuli, the two fast becoming best mates. So begins a twisted game of deception which works on many levels.

Although the trailer would have you believe that this is a tense psychological thriller in the mould of Single White Female it is fair to say that the thriller elements are probably the least successfully handled in the film. As the film progresses the level of coincidence approaches high drama, perhaps high farce. Where the film works best is the interplay between the three characters - the film is really a three hander - as they all learn the high price of deception.

The cast is terrific. Maenpa is just the right age to play the beautiful wife who has aged just one year to many to compete with the young student and Kataja is the personification of the modern young woman, both fearless and independent and yet incredibly vulnerable when things begin to unwind.

Perhaps the most recommendable feature of Black Ice is that, except for the overbaked third act, it is really a neat little psychological drama with each step forcing a reconsideration by the characters of their identity and purpose in this world of infidelity.

Video

   Black Ice is presented on DVD at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

The original aspect ratio for the film is described on IMDB as 2.35:1. Has this transfer been cropped? The DVD includes a theatrical trailer. Usually the trailer is a good guide of whether the film is in its original ratio. This is in the identical ratio. I did, however, source a trailer on the internet and found it at Trailer for Black Ice. By comparison of the trailer with the same scenes (I looked at about 5) in the film it becomes apparent that the film has been cropped from the original 2.35:1 ratio.

This is a pity as the cinematography by Harri Raty is marvellous and deliberately "wide screen". He uses the frozen vistas of urban and semi-rural Helsinki as chilly backgrounds to the deception playing out between the characters.

Aspect ratio aside, this is a nice looking film. The colours are detailed and clear, although a gloomy green creeps around the characters. There are no technical problems with the transfer. Compression is no issue and other problems like aliasing, colour bleeding and artefacts are nowhere to be found. The blacks are good and deep. There is an acceptable level of film grain.

There are English subtitles which are clear and easy to read.

I would have rated this as a 4 star film transfer but the change in aspect ratio demands a one star reduction in accordance with site policy.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sound for Black Ice is Finnish Dolby Digital 2.0 running at 224Kb/s. The DVD case describes the film as also having an English 2.0 track. This is in fact a reference to a few scenes where the characters converse in the common language of English (due to the presence of a young German man).

The soundtrack is without any technical problems.

A 5.1 track would have been nice although I did get a bit of bass drift into the sub-woofer.

The dialogue can be heard clearly and appears to be in audio sync.

The music is by Eicca Toppinen a member of Finnish cello-metal ban (no than wasn't a typo) Apocalyptica ! The track is (cello) string heavy, naturally, but it has a real depth and helps convey the themes of both disappointment and personal intrigue.

Aside from the score Toppinen also provides a few songs. Those for the nightclub scenes are quirky cello metal but the closing tune (think Evanescence) is performed by Hanna Pakarinen, the winner of Finland Idol.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer

The only extra on the DVD is the theatrical trailer. As previously said the trailer is heavy on the "mad woman stalks victim" theme which is not really a true depiction of the film.

  The DVD is not available in Region 1 at this time.

A reader has provided the following information about the Finnish release:

Black Ice (Musta jää) has been released 13.2.2008 on Region 2 DVD in Finland. Picture on DVD is 16x9 enhanced at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Sound for Black Ice is Finnish Dolby Digital 5.1 and Finnish DTS 5.1. There are English, Swedish and Finnish subtitles on DVD. Extras on second disc are 3 making of documents, music video and trailers.

    Black Ice is a competent, always engaging psychological drama that plays out in the chilly climes of Helsinki, a city perfectly suited to this genre.

The DVD looks good and sounds good but it does appear on the basis of some trailer evidence that the film is not being seen as it should be.

The lack of extras is disappointing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall