Review of Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) by Walter M — 26 Feb 2013

In "Rare Exports," Rauno(Jorma Tommila) is incensed that the annual Christmas Eve reindeer roundup has been ruined when he and his fellow hunters come across the carcasses of nearly all of the reindeer which cost them upwards of $80,000 in lost profits. The target of their ire is the drilling site near the Russian border but luckily for the outsiders, nobody is home. Rauno's son, Pietari(Onni Tommila), had snuck over there earlier this month with his friend Juuso(Ilmari Jarvenpaa) who asks his younger friend to not only keep quiet about that and the hole they made in the fence but also all of his crazy sounding theories concerning fairy tales and Santa Claus.

"Rare Exports" is a well-photographed movie. Aside from that, it has a truly original take on the Santa Claus mythos and a neatly subtle approach to its dark material which I would normally appreciate. However, in this case, the movie is mostly all suggestion. As noted expert Stephen King would say about horror, you have to deliver the goods at some point which this movie sadly does not do. That's not to mention an ending I'm not sure what to make of. Otherwise, that leaves some neat father-son interaction and lots of stuff on arcane Finnish hunting regulations.