Previously, I wasted valuable time talking about my attempts to buy some Estonian DVDs.
Ruudi was my attempt at buying a slightly "older" children's film (or family movie) that I hoped would be enjoyable enough to watch several times, and I'm quite pleased with how well it worked out.
Ruudi is a young boy (say, 8ish) who is absolutely Viking obsessed. He lives in a coastal town in Saaremaa with his single mother, Karmen - the town's sole police constable. His best friend is Viki, a girl who lives in the same building and is a few years older than he is, and they often play Viking related games together. On the outskirts of the town is a house built in the old style that used to belong to an old man called Orm, who fancied himself a Viking and encouraged Ruudi to believe there was Viking treasure "buried" just off the coast. Since his death, Ruudi and Viki had often looked into the windows of his house wondering if there was a clue to the location of the Viking treasure...
At the start of the film, everyone in town heads over to the fair (not entirely sure where), where a real-live honest-to-goodness replica Viking ship is taking boys and their fathers for joyrides. The ship's crew clings to the "male only" tradition of Viking ships. Our young hero lines up, ecstatic at the idea of a trip on a "real" viikingilaev, only to be turned away until he can "find" his father. The man at the boat completely misunderstands Ruudi's shy attempts to tell him that he hasn't got a father, and simply tells him to go away and come back with his father next time.
So, with the help of Viki and (somewhat reluctantly) Viki's father, Sass, Ruudi sets out trying to procure a father for next time.
Viki, who is quite fond of watching the odd beauty competition, suggests a "Big Daddy Comptetion" - the winner gets to be the father of a sweet, young, blonde boy. Er, and, by association, kind of also gets the sweet, young, blonde boy's mother. Fortunately it takes his mother some time to learn about this competition.
In the mean time, old Orm's long lost son turns up, the news of his father's death having finally reached him in New Zealand. He's a nice enough bloke, who quickly decides he likes the challenge of making the local police-woman smile for a change. Unfortunately, he moves into his father's house: the Viking Villa. This is a problem, you see, because it turns out that a sweet, young, blonde boy isn't really a good enough prize to attract any entrants into the Big Daddy Competition, so the kids decided to promise a Viking treasure as well. To get the Viking treasure, they have to find Orm's treasure maps. To get the treasure maps, they need to get that guy out of the viikingivilla.
Some hijinks ensue. Not necessarily hilarious (although I was quite amused by the "I'll be old age, you can be poverty" routine), but definitely sweet.
Then Ruudi has the opportunity to spend some quality time with Enn (Orm's son) and decides he doesn't mind the guy, and doesn't want to scare him into leaving after all. Oh, and he also finds some Viking coins in Orm's house, which factors in a series of events that becomes the Somewhat Significant Subplot.
The Somewhat Significant Subplot involves a 13 year old boy Viki quite fancies and his attempts to make some money by selling antiques to a couple of dodgy vendors. Viki gives him one of the coins and asks him to find out what he can about it. He sells it to the dodgy vendors, telling them he has heaps of them (the advertised Viking Treasure, you see), and they decide to steal the lot and make a mint.
In the meantime, the Big Daddy Contest must go ahead. I won't tell you who the entrants are (there must be some surprises left in the world), but I will tell you that a) Ruudi's mother finally finds out, and is not impressed and b) it doesn't go well for Enn's attempts to make her smile.
Then, suddenly, the Somewhat Significant Subplot becomes the actual plot, and there are bad guys, kidnappings and violence and mayhem. Family friendly violence and mayhem, but violence and mayhem none the less. This was just when you were beginning to wonder why they were bothering with the subplot anyway.
It is a sweet little family film, so I'm probably not giving much away by telling you it all ends happily in the end. Although, I can't say I'm convinced the bad guys actually got a comeuppance worthy of the kidnapping, violence and mayhem.
It was a nice film, thoroughly enjoyable as what it is. Fun for the whole family. Well, unless your family has any of those pesky teenagers who are in the "I can't stand sweet little family movies" stage.
It does seem to have a little bit of an identity crisis, though. The heart of the film was really a story about a boy finding a father, but they often downplayed the burgeoning relationship between the two. There was also a hint of romance between the boy's mother and the new daddy which wasn't quite explored as well as it could have been...
And then there was that whole subplot thing. The ads, packaging and trailers really emphasised the "goofy bad guys out to steal treasure" aspect of the film. In fact, I was quite surprised when the movie turned out to be a sweet story about a boy finding a father instead of a slap-stick comedy about a boy thwarting bad guys. I almost didn't buy it because I thought that was the plot, but I was curious about the whole Viking thing and the "big daddy contest" (also not as slap-stick as I was expecting).
And yet, the "bad guys stealing treasure" subplot was so minor throughout most of the film that it felt like it was included to try to keep young boys raised on American movies interested enough to get past the "maybe you could come over for dinner?" moments. It seemed almost tacked on, right up until it became a central part of the last act. But, still, even then it seemed almost too contrived. You felt as if there could have been another, less tacky way to get the boy's mother and potential father to reconcile their differences. Maybe one that actually involved them touching at some point.
Okay, yes, there was some touching at the end, but it was too far at the end. I felt robbed of a potential romantic plot thread. The part of me that occasionally craves a nice romantic comedy just wanted to see a few more "moments" between the two characters. Maybe at least one "oh, thank god you're still alive" embrace or something.
At the end it all tied together nicely and it was a lovely movie and I would happily watch it again... but I couldn't help but feel the film was missing pieces along the way. Another two or three scenes between the "family" would have been nice. A little more foreshadowing of the threat posed by the bad guys would have been good, too. The kidnapping, violence and mayhem seemed to come out of nowhere. One moment the bad guys are bumbling con men, the next moment they're practically gangsters. It was somewhat unprecedented, and felt like we had switched films for a moment.
That said, I quite enjoyed it. I'd recommend it to anyone fond of nice family films and capable of either speaking Estonian or reading subtitles. Also, anyone with a Viking obsessed kid.
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