I also read the book, just like the other reviewer, but I'm not from Finland so no self-loathing here. Sure, the production values are primitive, the pacing is slow, the acting is wobbly and the dark edge of the book is missing.
But how sweet and innocent a comedy it is. There being so little innocence these days in movies and reality, it reminds of olden days when it was still o.k. to make innocent road movies. Think La Strada, or It happened one night.
And you get a look into the Finnish soul for free.
3 Reviews
A film about
pantteri8 May 2002
Another typical finnish comedy. The original book is hilarious but the film fails to be so. There are only a few funny moments. Tired acting, tired cutting, tired scriptwriting. Typical, monotonous finnish comedy. The only positive thing about this film is the way it tries to make people laugh about something as serious as suicide. You know in Finland they kill themselves a lot! Poor comedies, high suicide numbers.
A counterword to pantteri's review
tuomasvitoivonen23 January 2021
An entertaining film, to be sure. Maybe a bit for "the accuired taste", in a way, but this one definitely has some good moments with good actors, directing, and original script.
pantteri called most of the film "old and tired", which is bullcrap. The cutting fails on a few occasions, I'll give him that, but overall this film is easily worth watching with it's original premise and all.
And as far as Finnish comedy is concerned, there aren't many that ring a bell to people outside Finland anyway, so what's the point in making that your benchmark like pantteri did? There are better ones out there, sure, but does that mean this one's "typical" and based on your grade also bad? No.
Good premise, good actors. Not perfect by any means, but that's life. I've seen a hundred worse ones and probably so have you.
Peace out!
pantteri called most of the film "old and tired", which is bullcrap. The cutting fails on a few occasions, I'll give him that, but overall this film is easily worth watching with it's original premise and all.
And as far as Finnish comedy is concerned, there aren't many that ring a bell to people outside Finland anyway, so what's the point in making that your benchmark like pantteri did? There are better ones out there, sure, but does that mean this one's "typical" and based on your grade also bad? No.
Good premise, good actors. Not perfect by any means, but that's life. I've seen a hundred worse ones and probably so have you.
Peace out!
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