Dogs Don’t Wear Pants
(Finland, 2019)
directed by Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää
Be warned: this film deals with graphic sexual content and features disturbing physical injuries.
Juha (Pekka Strang) is a widower, with a young teenaged daughter, who has never really dealt with his wife’s drowning death. An accidental visit to a dominatrix, Mona, (Krista Kosonen) awakens in him a way to reconnect with his wife and his old self. However, because Mona and Juha both have poor boundaries, and because Juha is willing to take grave risks to get his high, things quickly go south for everyone in spectacular ways.
This was an interesting and challenging film. I enjoyed the dry humour that popped up surprisingly frequently, especially surprising given the subject matter. The torture scenes and self-harm are hard to watch, and I had to close my eyes for a couple of minutes (not great when you need to read subtitles). However, the characters are sympathetically portrayed, and it is to the filmmaker’s credit that the scenarios don’t even seem too far fetched. The actors are all top notch, including Ilona Huhta as Elli, Juha’s daughter. The cinematography of the water scenes where Juha “sees” his wife again is dreamlike and gorgeous, and the water works well as a metaphor for the space between life and death.
I had some quibbles with it—I don’t think Mona’s character is fleshed out quite enough, considering that she is every bit as flawed and hurting as Juha. Some of her behaviour as a dominatrix is unethical, but that’s not explored in enough depth either. I also felt the film could have used a bit of editing—it was slightly too long and as a result seemed a bit flabby in spots.
Overall, this is not a movie I would have ordinarily chosen to watch. However, it was very engaging and it made me think about the different ways people process grief. I’d recommend it for people not easily bothered by graphic depictions of S&M.
(One final note: this movie contains one of my new favourite lines ever. One character informs another that they will have to undergo psychological testing, “to make sure all your Moomins are in the Valley.”)
