Movie Review

Directed by Aki Kauristmaki, starring: Marku Peltola (M) and Kati Outinen (Irma), subtitled, 97 minutes, 2002.

This Finnish movie is one of the top ten rated movies for 2003 and was a favourite at the Toronto Film Festival. It takes a little getting used to because, while it is a very funny movie, lines are delivered and received in a flat and phlegmatic tone.

The story begins on a train. "M", (we only learn his name at the end of the story) arrives in Helsinki and falls asleep on a bench outside the train station where he is set upon by thieves and left for dead at the side of the road. He is taken to the hospital and pronounced dead but suddenly rises on his own and leaves the hospital only to collapse again down by the water in an industrial area. He is found and nursed back to health by a family who live in a metal ship's container. He has no memory of his name, his past or his identity.

A whole underclass of people live in and rent these containers presided over by a security guard by the name of Attila. He is a rough and ready character with a gruff exterior and a seemingly greedy code of self-preservation. Everything costs. And yet he proves to be kind to M. In fact this group of poor people acts in ways that are self giving and thoughtful in the face of the harsh realities of their own meager lives. They share food, money and lore about how to get along. When "M" gets his own container and the power company hooks up electricity he asks, "How much do I owe you?" the service man says "If you see me face down in the gutter, turn me over."

"M" is invited out for supper one Friday night. It is to The Salvation Army Soup Kitchen and there he notices Irma, a Sally Ann officer who lives in a dreary dormitory close to the rail yards. She helps him improve his appearance in order to improve his prospects for a job. In fact, incongruously, "M "dresses mostly in a suit and tie provided from the used clothing store. He gets a job as a welder because he suddenly realizes that he can weld. However, in trying to open a bank account he is stymied by the lack of a name or any identification. In the midst of this transaction a lone gunman robs the bank. In the ensuing investigation by the police he is jailed because he is a suspicious character who will not give his name. There is an underlying theme of the oppressive effect of bureaucracy. There is no outside oppressor, only the corrosive effect of those charged by society to help. As it turns out his picture as a mystery man is plastered all over the front page of newspapers and is seen by his wife who lives in a city far to the north.

Tearfully, he and Irma part while he goes north to find his old life. It turns out the reason he was on the train in the first place was that he and his wife had decided to divorce and he had left in order to find a new life. Happily, in a phlegmatic sort of way, he returns to Helsinki and his true love, this time with a name and prospects.

The charm of this romantic tale is in the way that the characters are underplayed. It would be easy to mock the earnestness of the Salvation Army but the characters are all played straight. At one point "M" suggest to the Captain of the Citadel that the boys in the band could play some different music to attract a different crowd. He invites them to his 'place' to listen to music on a jukebox that he has found and fixed up. They end up playing rock music with new and adapted words sung by the Citadel Captain. The effect is droll and the Friday Night Concerts become a new centre to the drab community life of those who live hand to mouth. There are no sermons here about the nobility of poverty. People do act kindly towards one another but this is not a moral tale about being kind to strangers. It is, rather, a modern retelling of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Grace strikes only those who do not expect it and cannot resist it even if they wanted to.