145. Compartment No.6 (Hytti nro 6); movie review

 

COMPARTMENT NO.6 (HYTTI NRO 6)

Cert 15

108 mins

BBFC advice: Contains very strong language

It has been garlanded with awards and I can see why some people would fall for Juho Kuosmanen's Compartment No.6.

But I found the unlikely love story rather too laboured.

It stars Seidi Haarla as a gay Finnish student who has been living with her tutor in Moscow and is preparing for a long trip to see historical artefacts in Murmansk.

The lover bails out of the trek which they had organised together, so she reluctantly goes on her own.

This is a two-day journey and she is ill-prepared for the rough-and-ready train with its unsmiling staff and lack of privacy.

Her ticket is in Compartment No.6 which she is forced to share with a boorish, skin-headed Russian (Yuriy Borisov) who makes a crude play for her.

For the first half of the journey she tries to avoid him but that proves impossible in a claustrophobic train.

And, for reasons which even she doesn't seem to understand, she begins to warm to the vodka-drinking sausage-eater.

Even if we could call this a romance, it is a slow, slow burn.

The surprise is that the fella transpires to be more sensitive and have a warmer heart than anyone would have expected.

Anyway, there is much time spent over verbal jousting before any common ground can be found.

Haarla and Borisov certainly engender warmth despite rocky openings but our problem was that not enough happens between them.

I have read comparisons between Compartment No.6 and the much-lauded Lost In Translation which starred Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.

I suspect those who enjoyed that will lap this up. I didn't get it so this didn't resonate with me either. Perhaps, I just don't have enough romance in me.

Reasons to watch: Quirky love story

Reasons to avoid: So so slow

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 5.5/10

Did you know? The Murmansk petroglyphs have been dated to the 2nd and 3rd millennium BC. There are currently about 1,300 different images discovered in 18 groups at the site.

The final word. Juho Kuosmanen: "I thought 'no, it’s impossible to adapt.' Then I met the author and she said that I can do whatever I want with the book, that they would be two different works. It felt easier, that we weren’t stuck with the book and didn’t have to keep anything from it." Curzon

Share this post