There is a Finnish saying that goes something like grown-ups produce children, then the children turn them into adults. Anyone who has ever cared for a child for more than a night will understand completely. Producing Adults is a contemporary tale of one woman trying to get pregnant and becoming an adult along the way.

SPOLIER ALERT

Venla is a counsellor in a fertility clinic. A woman who makes sure couples are ready to have children. This could not be more ironic as she is in a dead relationship with her boyfriend of 15 years. She is so determined to have kids that she completely ignores her partner’s obvious lack of interest in producing. Antero is terrified; he’s not ready to have children, but knows that either they do, or Venla will leave him. He loves her deeply and is convinced to come up with all sorts of inventive ways to avoid her becoming pregnant; even getting a vasectomy without her knowledge.

While all this is going on, Venla strikes up a friendship with Satu, a doctor in the clinic whose private life looks less centred that Venla’s but is actually more ‘adult’. She lives with her brother and his musical partner. They seem to live like bums but are a family of their own making; warm and loving if constantly wearing bathrobes.

Satu falls for Venla in a big way and is open about it; Venla has spent so long clamping an iron grip on her emotions that she finds it nearly impossible to express her love for Satu. Fate takes over and decides if they are right to produce adults.

At the risk of using a pat phrase, this is a gem of a film; warm, touching and insightful. The characters are three-dimensional, the acting pitch perfect and the writing spot on. The central trio all have their foibles and insecurities just as we all do, striving to find love and family in the madness of modern life.

Producing Adults is distributed by Peccadillo Pictures

Popularity: 1% [?]

No related posts.