Four Little Adults movie storyline. Juulia is a successful Member of the Parliament with a seemingly perfect marriage with her priest husband Matias. But when Juulia finds out Matias has had a year-long affair with Enni, she collapses. To save her marriage, Juulia invites Enni to be a part of their lives, and they start a polyamorous relationship. When Juulia explores the new rules, she falls in love with young Miska, who seems to be the most mature of the quartet. There is a lot of love in the relationships among the four, but no matter how hard they try, challenges seem to remain.
Four Little Adults is a unique, modern story about the limits of love and grown-ups with growing pains. The Finnish film was directed by Selma Vilhunen. The Screenplay was written by Venla Hellstedt and Elli Toivoniemi.It stars Alma Pöysti, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Pietu Wikström, Kaija Pakarinen, Esko Roine, Peter Kanerva, Salla Kozma, Timo Tuominen, Meri Milash, Joni Hyvönen, Merja Göös and Petra Innanen.
Enter Selma Vilhunen’s Four Little Adults, in which a group of middle-aged folks (one of them a pastor!) decide that it’s time to break with society’s norms and prejudices about the way sex and togetherness supposedly work. Only to find out that there is an alternative, and it’s good! The genius of Four Little Adults lies in Vilhunen’s optimism and belief in people’s ability to make something less common work well for everybody.
It’s something she presents cinematically as the most normal of occurrences, as the film is directed in the most humble, straight-forward, classical fashion with lovely comedic and occasional dramatic touches that give the characters something well-rounded and relatable. This is important here, because Vilhunen is saying that you could do this as well. Yes, dear IFFR visitor, you too can have a different life if you so desire! Four Little Adults tells you so.
Film Review for Four Little Adults
Written and directed by Selma Vilhunen, a middle-aged couple who, in the middle of an infidelity crisis, decide to open their marriage and venture into polyamory. Starring: Alma Pöysti, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Pietu Wikström, Iivo Tuuri, Kaija Pakarinen, Esko Roine, Emilia Sinisalo, Saaga Salo and Vilhelm Blomgren.
Approaching the topic of polyamory is often done with younger characters, and treated in a more experimental, and typically unsuccessful, manner so to switch things up and explore how it could work for a middle-aged married couple is a nice change of pace. While that is true and by the time that the credits roll on Four Little Adults it has found an interesting path, the journey along the way is rocky. The primary issue is that when the plot kicks off, it all feels quite competitive, childish and driven by one-upmanship or a desire to hurt the other person.
It’s not a great way to get people into this story, it doesn’t feel as though it’s taking the topic seriously and it ultimately takes too long to settle in. That combative nature undermines the progressive attitude, but once it does eventually find its footing, there’s an interesting conversation to be had about commitment and public versus private lives. Although, one particular sticking point is the character of Matias (Eero Milonoff). He’s the crux of how their polyamory begins and yet, it’s hard to believe that one, let alone two women would desire a relationship with him.
He simply has no charisma, he says as little as possible and he’s almost always sullen and irritable. The women do occasionally talk about his vibrant qualities but we never see them. Whether that’s down to the underwhelming performance of Milonoff or the writing is slightly difficult to tell. Whereas Alma Pöysti, Oona Airola and Pietu Wikström all bring a huge deal of personality to the table and are engaging to watch. The same goes for the direction and cinematography, Four Little Adults is visually strong, it has great colouring and a well done mix of shots for an overall compelling, sharp aesthetic.
Four Little Adults sadly takes too much work to arrive at its destination, there’s a solid foundation and good conversation to be had but it struggles to get there. There’s a lot of clunky ground to tread through which keeps the audience at arm’s length, which is a shame because once you dig a little there are some engaging characters to be found, with the exception of Matias, who feels like a misstep. The story had potential and it’s shot very well but everything simply doesn’t come together.
Four Little Adults (2023)
Neljä Pientä Eikuista
Directed by: Selma Vilhunen
Starring: Alma Pöysti, Eero Milonoff, Oona Airola, Pietu Wikström, Kaija Pakarinen, Esko Roine, Peter Kanerva, Salla Kozma, Timo Tuominen, Meri Milash, Joni Hyvönen, Merja Göös, Petra Innanen
Screenplay by: Venla Hellstedt, Elli Toivoniemi
Production Design by: Sattva-Hanna Toiviainen
Cinematography by: Juice Huhtala
Film Editing by: Antti Reikko
Costume Design by: Karoliina Koiso-Kanttila
Art Direction by: Tuuli Gröhn
Music by: Sarah Assbring, Jacob Haage
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Haut et Court (France), SF Film Finland (Finland)
Release Date: Ahril 22, 2023 (United States), December 27, 2023 (Finland)
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