This is a biopic on Touko Laaksonen, or Tom of Finland to his many adoring fan, who is the artist behind those beautifully and erotically sketched drawings of extremely muscular men who engage in very explicit sexual activities with other equally muscular men in tight-fitting uniforms and leather gear and more often than not, with their substantial genitalia hanging out for all to see. Starting from the time when he was a lieutenant fighting in the WWII until his work was finally published in the US and internationally, this film tries to cover a lot of ground in his life, juxtaposing his repressive upbringing with his desires and artistry which was illegal at the time in his homeland of Finland. As a result, the film goes from BBC period drama to mismatched rom-com, then to Love Story (of the MacGraw/O’Neal kind) and political AIDS drama, but mainly it is a BBC drama. If you mute the Finnish dialogue, you could easily be watching BBC2 on a Thursday night. And there lies the problem: this is so tastefully and conventionally done, it ultimately feels a little too tame and safe for its subject-matter and while it could arguably broaden his appeal to those who have not heard of him and his work, what it actually does is to serve its niche market, in which case, I have to wonder: would that audience and Touko have approved of this treatment?
@SubtitledFriend 