A Bit More Than Just Your Average Thriller

A Bit More Than Just Your Average Thriller

Bruce Von Stiers

Innuendo is a very interesting film. It was written, directed and produced by Saara Lamberg. Saara also starred in the film.

Saara has been in whole bunch of shorts and a few features. She wrote and directed several of the shorts. Innuendo is the first feature where Saara wore those same hats.

Innuendo was entered into the Cinema Australia competition, Cinema Australia 2017 Audience Award. As of this writing, the winner hadn't been announced. Saara won a Bronze award for the Innuendo screenplay at the Beverly Hills Screenwriting Contest.

Saara has a Finnish / Australian background, so a few of the elements in the film seem to have come from her heritage.

Saara stars as Tuuli, a young woman trying to find herself. She is extremely curious about human sexuality and what the means, with or without a partner. She leaves her native country and goes to Australia. There she begins a journey that might, or might not, bring forth the ghosts that haunt her psyche.

A chance encounter leads Tuuli to become a nude model for an art class. This moves Tuuli in a direction that she never envisioned herself to go.

The film is interspersed with scenes from Tuuli's childhood. They are fairly disturbing as they all seem to be somewhat sexual in nature. From touching herself to offering up a naked doll at a church alter, there is definitely something off about Tuuli. The viewer learns that Tuuli has a twin sister who is always being thought of as an angel, while Tuuli, is, well, not. As these scenes take place in Finland, the language in them is Finnish with English subtitles.

The further along the film goes, and as Tuuli gets deeper into nude modeling, she begins to have fantasies of lust combined with murder. She also gets several different guys interested in her. But will any of them be enough for Tuuli? Thomas is seeming in love with her. But she hooks up with Ben, a chainsaw artist, and then things get really interesting. There is a connection with a couple who are in the class where Tuuli models, a fire and then an apparent suicide.

I had mentioned earlier that this is an interesting film. There are a few comedic moments and quite a bit of quirkiness. But there are also a lot of dark and sinister moments. There are definite erotic moments in the film too. Although Tuuli is by no means a sex goddess, she has a certain alluring quality to her.

Brendan Bacon has the role of Ben. Thomas is played by Andy Hazel. Karina Sorelli and Andrew Jans-Brown play a couple whose lives cross paths with Tuuli's. Supporting roles were filled by Pauline Grace, Nicolas Gunn, Eeva Putro and Ezel Duruk. There were many others involved in the cast including Kevin Dee, Ben Howell, Marie Werrett, Jess Riley and Naomi Lisner.

Early reviews of the film have compared it to the work of David Lynch or possibly Roman Polanski. I don't know if those comparisons are accurate or not, but there are some definite dark and warped parts to this film that would be right in line with the type of film that Lynch puts together.

Without trying to reveal too much, I will say that there a few plot twists. One in particular I saw coming. But then again, I read a lot of books and watch a lot of thrillers so I kind of thought where it was going. But not entirely.

If you like quirky films, with a strong sense of sinister mixed with a bit of comedy and a whole lot of sexual tension, then Innuendo might just be the film for you to watch.

Umbrella Entertainment is the Australian distributer for Innuendo. Blairwood Entertainment is the worldwide agent for the film.

The Umbrella Entertainment web page for Innuendo can be found at http://www.umbrellaentfilms.com.au/movie/innuendo/

The film also has a Facebook fan page at https://www.facebook.com/innuendomovie

And the official trailer for Innuendo is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDb_U0XP3vs

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