An American is fetched from the airport. The driver tells him that love can be very interesting in Finland: girls, women, boys - anything goes.
In a restaurant Make announces that he is going to be married, but he has to run away from sharks. They announce that they will shag his girl-friend if the money isn't ready after one week.
Milla want to famous and would do "anything" to achieve her goal. On the way to her father she meets Aleksi who loves his dog more than his mother. (And the mother loves her career more than her son:) Milla also meets Waltteri (who talks Russian to his mother who has also a Russian lover). Waltteri is mobbed by his school mates.
Pertti is fixed on health and fitness, but he doesn't achieve results. He wants to force his son the way he cannot manage to live.
Lauri is estranged from his wife and begins an affair with their house assistant.
Marika has cancer and is a single mother. She might die. Lauri is her doctor.
Eightfold misery in the Helsinki suburb. Misery, carelessness, suffering and most of all: lack of love.
I have to say that I liked it. There is not only the cold registration of losers and failures, but also a sympathizing eye on them. We feel with the characters and thus this became for me more a document of humanity than a piece of social exploit. During the screen credits we see how little effort would be required to make the lives of these people bearable. I was deeply impressed.
Although similar tales have been told before, Louhimies avoids using clichés. Well done!
9/10
In a restaurant Make announces that he is going to be married, but he has to run away from sharks. They announce that they will shag his girl-friend if the money isn't ready after one week.
Milla want to famous and would do "anything" to achieve her goal. On the way to her father she meets Aleksi who loves his dog more than his mother. (And the mother loves her career more than her son:) Milla also meets Waltteri (who talks Russian to his mother who has also a Russian lover). Waltteri is mobbed by his school mates.
Pertti is fixed on health and fitness, but he doesn't achieve results. He wants to force his son the way he cannot manage to live.
Lauri is estranged from his wife and begins an affair with their house assistant.
Marika has cancer and is a single mother. She might die. Lauri is her doctor.
Eightfold misery in the Helsinki suburb. Misery, carelessness, suffering and most of all: lack of love.
I have to say that I liked it. There is not only the cold registration of losers and failures, but also a sympathizing eye on them. We feel with the characters and thus this became for me more a document of humanity than a piece of social exploit. During the screen credits we see how little effort would be required to make the lives of these people bearable. I was deeply impressed.
Although similar tales have been told before, Louhimies avoids using clichés. Well done!
9/10
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