Heart of a Lion

2013 [FINNISH]

Action / Drama / Romance

Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 69% · 1 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 69% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.0/10 10 4381 4.4K

psychopath

Plot summary

Neo-Nazi falls in love with a woman who has a black son and finds himself fighting with conflicting feelings.

Director

Dome Karukoski Photo
Dome Karukoski

Top cast

Laura Birn Photo
Laura Birn as Sari
Peter Franzén Photo
Peter Franzén as Teppo Salminen
Jasper Pääkkönen Photo
Jasper Pääkkönen as Harri
Jari Forsman Photo
Jari Forsman as Riitamaa
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
910.06 MB
1280*536
Finnish 2.0
NR
Subtitles fi  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds ...
1.82 GB
1920*804
Finnish 5.1
NR
Subtitles fi  
23.976 fps
1 hr 39 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by samukaresma 7 / 10

Finnish History X

I instantly got the feeling to compare it American History X, as Heart of a Lion was presented with a similar premise. Heart of a Lion, however, focuses a lot more on the relationship between the two characters, rather than (mostly) one character having an existential crisis.The beginging was a bit odd and boring. The relationship with the main character and his future girlfriend felt very awkward and unrelatable. I just kept thinking why on Earth would she want to be with him, and the chemistry felt forced. The chemistries and relationships between the main character and the kid and the brother were a lot better, great even. Those and the acting was really what carried the movie. Otherwise it could have been better.The neo-Nazi group as well as the plot in general and its events were all very unconvincing and unbelievable, as in unrealistic and over-the-top. Seven guys coming to beat one guy up just because their kid's shirt was stolen at school? Things like that really broke the immersion. All the other characters aside from the three main characters felt over-exaggerated caricatures and stereotypes.Despite its flaws, the movie still managed to be emotional and after the first twenty minutes the pacing and directing were good. Acting was great and overall the movie was okay.
Reviewed by opferacija 7 / 10

Best Finnish film, although that's not saying much. One single spoiler (I have an internal warning)

The film industry suffers from a lot of problems - weak scripts, small pool of talent hogging everything and a claustrophobic, incestuous climate of recycled films/actors/ideas. There's the obligatory film about the war with Russia, a whole bunch of wannabe Hollywood filmmakers that should stick to music videos and nothing of real quality worth noting.When asked "Is there a good Finnish film to watch?" I would just say "no, not really." I'm not being unpatriotic, but you should just watch things that are good. Watching things out of patriotism is akin to charity.This film is actually good. I would give it 6.7, but IMDb does not have fractions, so I rounded it up to seven, which is quite generous.There are problems with this film that stem from a slightly immature/amateur production.Music has little to play in this film. Film is not theater and we don't live in the silent film era, but some films give so little consideration to audio which is, in my opinion, half the film. There's no powerful score, no soundtrack to help the story, nothing. Scenes with Nazis could've had metal, punk or something. Scenes with refugees could've had some music. Show this contrast of cultures.Real-life Neo-Nazis make a bigger deal about music they don't like than other minor grievances (not just them, innocent kids in the car complain about music because music is powerful and if you don't like it, it's really annoying).The cinematography was okay. They just filmed it as it is. There's no interesting camera movement, angles, framing, blocking. The camera just filmed what was there and that's it.The casting is great. The acting is great.Locations - meh. There was nothing special.Pacing was a bit heavy. The story didn't have a great flow to it. Editing too. Things just happen one after the other, sometimes you're not sure if this is the same minute, day or week. Dialogue was okay. The script showed some weakness.It's a good film overall and a step in the right direction for the industry as a whole.I'm going to state this explicitly so that no one learns the wrong lesson: The reason why this film is good is because it's original (not a ripoff of some American film) and it's entertaining. This does not mean "People liked this film, let's make it 15 more times" or "let's make more films about Neo-Nazis, people love that topic." Nopes, sorry. I liked the first one, this one. Think of something new next time. I'm not interested in any more stories about Neo-Nazis, or step-father-step-child bonding or something of the sort.If you cook a good dish and your spouse says "Wow, you're a good cook" - that doesn't mean "hmm. S/he likes spaghetti. I'm gonna make that for him/her every day for 40 years!"SPOILERThe idea that the boy's father would leave his son alone with two skinheads that play pranks with grenades is laughable. People don't leave their kids with a random stranger to begin with. Two random strangers? Two random skinhead strangers? Two random skinhead strangers who play jokes with grenades? I can't fault the actors. This is amateur scriptwriting.
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