Film Forum

(2002) A man arrives in Helsinki, gets mugged, loses his memory and must start his life from scratch. Kaurismäki’s critical breakthrough (often deemed his most accessible film) is an entrancing humanist fable / romance, adorned with his affinity for outcasts, deadpan dialogue, and saturated colors. Winner of the Grand Prix and Best Actress for Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen (THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL) at Cannes – as well as the “Palm Dog,” for best performance by a dog (“Tähti”) – and an Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. 35mm. Approx. 97 mins.

Reviews

“Hilarious and humane. (A) lovely comic fable…full of bright color, exquisitely strange dialogue, and music. Has a sly, controlled silliness that recalls Preston Sturges and a vision of resilience and nobility in hard times that suggests Charlie Chaplin without the sleeve-tugging sentimentality, or Frank Capra without the weakness for speechifying. And like the great films of the 1930s and early 40’s, it is at once artful and unpretentious, sophisticated and completely accessible, sure of its own authority and generous toward characters and audience alike - a movie whose intended public is the human race.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“A deadpan comic romance rendered as a series of poker-faced arabesques. The movie’s terrific opening sequence…is as tense and as spare as any ‘50s B movie… Kaurismaki’s temperament may be sweeter than Fassbinder’s but his mode of address is no less cool. His camera moves are precise; his blocking is impeccable; his laconic sight gags are perfectly uninflected…A movie of sustained stylistic integrity—and it has the power to make you laugh.”
– J. Hoberman, Village Voice

“Enormously satisfying, superbly crafted. Consistently funny and ultimately uplifting.”
– David Rooney, Variety