Film

Tove

Name: Tove
Genre: Drama
Released: 2020
Cast: Alma Pöysti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney, Joanna Haartti, Kajsa Ernst

Biopic

A luminous portrait of Tove Jansson in postwar Helsinki, caught between her ambitions as a serious painter and the unexpected global success of her Moomin creation. The film watches her navigate artistic identity, queer desire, and the weight of being claimed by something you made almost by accident. Warm, thoughtful, and gorgeously composed.

TMDb rating

3.3

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Like Tove, it's about an artist of genius obsessed with control and perfection, and the intimate relationships that both sustain and destabilize that vision. Mesmerizing and deeply sensual.

But It's slow and claustrophobic, with a toxic romantic core that some find difficult to sit with rather than admire.

A Bigger Splash2015

Another film about an artist in a sun-soaked setting wrestling with desire, ego, and the people who orbit their work. Luca Guadagnino's visual language has a similar intoxicating quality.

But It's more sensual and volatile than introspective; the narrative can feel secondary to mood and image.

Coco Before Chanel2009

Both trace how an artist's personal vision becomes a global brand, and the cost of that transformation. It's tender about ambition without being sentimental about it.

But The pacing is deliberate, and if you want plot momentum, you'll find it frustratingly thin.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Tove

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dekalog1989

Both are about how we make meaning in the aftermath of violence and upheaval. Both trust the viewer completely and refuse easy comfort.

Kieslowski's ten-hour meditation on ethics, chance, and meaning in ordinary lives. Like Tove, it's a work of genuine spiritual intelligence that finds the mythic in the domestic and the daily.

But It's deliberately paced, intellectually demanding, and Polish in its register—nothing is resolved or answered. It requires patient surrender rather than entertainment.

The Danish Girl2015

Another portrait of an artist in early-twentieth-century Northern Europe discovering aspects of themselves through their work, set against a marriage and period of historical rupture.

But It received mixed reviews for how it handles its source material, and some find its emotional register overly neat.

The Hours2002

Three narratives braided together—one follows a writer creating art while managing a difficult inner life. It shares Tove's interest in how creativity and identity intertwine across a single day.

But It's deliberately theatrical and can feel more like an adaptation of an adaptation; the ambition sometimes outpaces the execution.

Fingersmith2005

A masterful limited series about women in a con, with the complex same-sex attraction and artistic sleight of hand that Tove explores. Brilliantly plotted and hypnotic.

But The reveals demand your full attention; if you half-watch it, you'll miss the layering that makes it work.

Carol2015

Todd Haynes captures desire and social constraint in a mid-century setting with painterly beauty. It shares Tove's gentle intensity about what it costs to want what you want.

But The restraint is the point, but for some viewers, that restraint reads as a kind of emotional distance.

Vita & Virginia2019

A portrait of two writers in love, navigating marriage, infidelity, and the fuel that desire provides to creative work. Visually inventive and affectionate.

But The budget shows; it has a made-for-TV quality that undercuts its own ambition in places.

Becoming Jane2007

A biopic of a writer's formative years and romantic awakening in a constrained society. If you want something more conventional in shape but with real craft and sincerity.

But It's more traditional literary-biopic fare, and that familiarity can feel a little safe.

The Souvenir2019

Both are about the making of an artist and what a damaging love affair teaches. Both use visual language in place of conventional plot.

A formally experimental film about a young artist learning her craft while in a relationship that damages her. It captures the texture of artistic discovery with rare intimacy and strangeness.

But It's deliberately oblique and elliptical; the narrative is partial and impressionistic rather than clear. Some find it obscure.

Mulholland Drive2001

Both are about the artist who cannot quite own what they've made, and the self that fractures under the weight of being claimed by strangers.

Lynch's fever dream about aspiration, identity, and the price of wanting to be seen in a world that consumes dreamers. It shares Tove's fascination with the self fractured by desire and creation.

But It's surreal and requires active interpretation; there is no single correct reading, which some find infuriating rather than liberating.