Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale



Rare Exports garnered some murmuring and buzz when it originally came out of nowhere. And by nowhere, I mean Finland. Finland is not exactly known for their films. What are they known for… Vodka? Anyway, I honestly forgot about this thinking my library would never get this. Wrongo smegma breath. Suddenly it appeared before my eyes.

The trailer looked cool, so I was, er, cautiously excited. I mean, I thought the same thing about Trollhunter… which yes, was unique, but turned out boring.

Rare Exports is a beautifully shot flick. One of the sharpest I’ve seen on a regular DVD. The direction and editing was superb. The characters were unique and interesting, in particular the kid and one of the mysterious characters (I can’t talk about or it gives away a spoiler).

Rare Exports is a bizarre, yet wildly fresh and refreshing storytelling/perspective of Santa. Yes THAT Santa Claus and his Elves. From the beginning I was sucked into this mystery that was unfolding about a fairy tale character we’ve all grown up with. 95% of the movie is in Finnish with sudden bursts of clear as a bell English discussion.

For some reason I had the idea this was a horror movie. It’s not. It’s more of a fairy tale coming to a dark reality.
 
But…

… Unfortunately the last 20 minutes suddenly takes a turn and pegs out the ol crap-o-meter. Characters suddenly figure everything out, act on it in very quick fashion and then the last 3 minutes justify the title of the film. Not that I was wondering, but they put a nice little bow on it despite it having nothing to do with the previous 1-1/2 hours.

Not a big loss. I enjoyed most of it and recommend it for something different.