3 stars: 1. Hirviniemi is able to throw some good lines and able to squeeze something out of his character. 2. Some really nice shooting and scenery. 3. After movie you can talk with your friend how lame the movies actually was.

The movie offers very very little. I had no foggiest idea what this piece was actually all about. Perhaps the idea was that people just want to invoke some drama when there's a change.

First I need to say that I was under the influence of the movie for a few days after watching it. My primitive understanding of life, love and other things was not enough to figure characters' motivations out. This movie didn't broaden my horizon but gave me a second horizon which I never want to look at consciously.

Movie is about a wife's affair with one of her husband's best friends (also an ex of wife). Husband is a preacher and invites his friend to their home. After a few failed attempts his friend and his wife have sex a few times and the last one is a bit different.

There are some interesting points having some clues about the actions of wife like she never seems neither lack of a good sex nor having an unloving husband, yet has sex with husband's friend. But once, she says that she had wild relationships, one night stands, lived everything etc. After her seperation with her ex then settled with the preacher husband (classic cliché). Chances are she might have developed some sex addiction during that era or she wants to figure out if she still interested in her ex. So, one might think that wife has some credible foundation for her actions until she has an unbelievable sexual intercourse with the ex under some weird conditions; she has sex letting her husband to hear them and watch them sleeping naked. She probably did it to be honest as much as possible against her husband. So she means that if you still want me you have to live through with this without making up things in your head but living it raw even if it's humiliating. (by the way first she apologizes from husband before sleeping with his friend). I have never seen a scene like this cruel and rude in any movie. It's a new level! Even a new dimension! Director shot the sex scenes explicit but yes it is true that when two people have sex it happens like that.

But if you can isolate yourself from the intense music that she plays with her cello, flows with the beautiful scenery and poker face of her, you can realize that she attracted only with familiar but different skin, odor, tounge, genitals, pattern of having sex, pressure, touch and penetration. It was all about having sex with another human being. She just wanted to taste it. That's it! That's all! And husband's friend's motivation is no exception!

Some tries to explain it with female hypergami or attractness of alpha male or feminist liberalism or male's trying to spread their sperms as much as possible bla bla bla... Those arguments might be true but sometimes... sometimes... rarely... not often... love prevents cheating, humiliating or hurting a partner. Love prevents a man from pointing a rifle to his best friend's head crying.

Husband truly loves his wife. But it's a very different version of love.

Husband's friend is worthless to talk about.

In my humble opinion the wife wants whole world with everything in it. She doesn't have a visible scar on her face but has a scar on her mind. One can see it in her eyes in the last scene when she stares at her husband and might yell " Oh God! Don't kill him!"

Absolutely worth to watch. 7 out of 10.

I have to admit, I've seen little Finnish cinema in the past; a lot more Swedish and Norwegian. But The Wait is undoubtedly worth the wait (Pardon the pun.). It's a slow - burning drama from director Aku Louhimies, who is apparently quite experienced and who co - wrote this movie along with lead actress Inka Kallén, adapting it from a very well known nineteenth century Finnish novel.

The Wait is not a great movie, but it is a very interesting one for anyone like me, who is keen on seeing more Finnish product. For a start, the summer coastal scenery is just stunning, with the whole movie being set on an unnamed, underpopulated island off the coast, accessible by ferry. Elli (Kallen) lives there along with her preacher husband Mikko. The congregation of his decidedly progressive church as a whole seem to be mostly made up of thirty somethings (unrealistically I'd suggest),bent on having a good time while on their island paradise. Elli and Mikko seem to have a very satisfying marriage, which somewhat predictably suffers some tremors, with the arrival of Phd student Olavi, an old bestie of Mikko's. But seemingly unknown to Mikko, also an old flame of Elli's, who in the past dumped her; an act we find out, she never quite got over.

It's kind of amusing reading other reviews here, which complain, The Wait has no story. Indeed it has a very clear story, but one that isn't filled with reams of dialogue and exposition. Elli initially appears to be a traditional house wife, content to carry out domestic duties such as cooking, cleaning and supporting her husband further with her presence at church, even though we sense she doesn't hold anywhere near as strong religious beliefs. We gradually learn however she is a fiercely independent woman in her own right, who has in the past trod her own definite path in life and who intends to keep doing so in the future. It becomes clear there will be some sort of reckoning between her and Olavi and the suspense comes in attempting to determine how this relationship will impact her marriage.

Inka Kallen in the central role carries the picture on her shoulders and does an excellent job, considering as I mentioned, she doesn't have the large amount of dialogue, that one might expect in a film of this nature. But she is marvellously expressive at communicating her inner self and feelings with her body language and facial impressions. The supporting cast are all very competent.

Without spoiling, I'd like to say, that I appreciated the conclusion in The Wait. It teases moments of melodrama, but deftly avoids tipping over the edge into a morass of standard outcomes. The ending is very satisfying and quite realistic in the context of what has preceded it in this very worthwhile film.