Why I took it off the list:
The colorful poster for this Estonian film caught my attention. Featuring an alien examining a woman, it promised a kooky adventure that I felt I had to check out.
So, let’s dig in!
Review of The Black Hole (2024)
Divided into 3 chapters (A Life Worth Living, The Mystery of the Wooden Shoe, and Apple Pie), The Black Hole opens on evocative shots of an apartment building before taking us inside to meet some of the residents .
There’s Salme, a woman visiting with her Finnish husband Juho, and Maret and Sirje, two women who are hoping to get out of Estonia and work for a better life. When we meet them, they are angling for a job in Juho’s laundromat business.
Elsewhere, we meet Uma, a young personal trainer who decides to help a battered woman, Marililus, who she finds crying in her gym and decides to take home with her.
After being turned down by Salme and Juho, Maret and Sirje get offered a job opportunity by a neighbor, Villem. But on the way to the interview, he exposes himself, causing the women to panic and the car to run off the road. After escaping the vehicle, Maret decides to take a bus back, while Sirje opts to walk.
This is where things get truly strange, as on her way Sirje bumps into a literal alien. The alien announces himself as Kiri-n-Poulsen from the Andromeda Nebula, and offers Sije a job of 1,000 euros a day to take part in a research study studying “post-middle aged homo sapiens”.
Initially skeptical, Sirje comes around to the idea, and is promptly abducted, beaming up into a flying saucer. Sirje later convinces the aliens to give her friend Maret a job too, and the aliens experiment on the women, removing libs and teeth painlessly.
This lucrative arrangement is put on to rocky ground, however, when the women decide to demand extra benefits from the aliens, asking if they can permanently move the Nebula ‘to get out of here for good”. This angers the aliens, and they call off the contact, causing a rift between the women.
Meanwhile, Uma starts a romantic relationship with Marililis. Their domestic bliss is disrupted, however, when they spot a giant spider lurking in their home. After unsuccessfully trying to get rid of it, and losing Marililis in the process, Uma forms a connection with it.
Uneven but Entertaining at Times
If the plot description above sounds random, it’s because the film is unrepentantly so. And I’ve only recapped the first half, the randomness continues for two whole chapters more!
The triptych structure is not entirely successful, as the first 2 stories of the 2 pairs of disparate women don’t mesh well. Meanwhile, the second chapter is almost entirely removed from the events of the bookending installments. It follows a man called Jüri as he deals with an Austrian vacuum salesman and begins a relationship with a mysterious, seductive woman, and the tone veers even more all over the place.
Things turn around a bit in the third chapter, Apple Pie, a little, as the aliens return to recruit Jüri’s mother to be a cook in their Nebula. There is some nice, funny banter as the woman negotiates with one of the creatures.
Overall, though, The Black Hole feels uneven, and can feel slow-going and directionless at points, particularly during the second chapter. The lack of cohesion might be down to the fact that it’s inspired by 3 short stories by 2 different authors, “The Spider” and “The Black Hole” by Armin Kõomägi, and “A Life Worth Living” by Andrus Kivirähk.
Still, there are some bright spots to be found throughout the film. The interactions between the aliens and their employees are entertaining. Also, the practical special effects of the aliens are spectacular and the CG effects of the spaceship are just as impressive.
Final score: 6/10
The Black Hole (2025): Worth Watching?
It depends, The Black Hole is fitfully entertaining in its first and last segments, but gets lost in its second installment. Still, it’s worth watching for the interactions with the aliens and some decent special effects.
