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Just perfect...

A Disappointing Continuation

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

absolutely flabbergasted !!! that's about sums up my feeling when I first saw this. This was probably the turning point movie for me in dwelling into Nordic films - and what a start.I had to see it again. The blank expressions initially was distracting but in fact there's a lot of expression. The little waiting moments too and so is the dog!!! Now I'm writing from recollection from more than 10 years ago, so maybe somethings maybe amissed. But the feeling (especially of fleeting hope - the ending- in tough times) imprinted by tone and images are that strong!!! Then I started to try Icelandic film - first one was Cold Fever. Also Bent Hammer's films, and the likes of Green Butchers, the Bothersome Man... these are films of a different world almost. But somehow they speak much about loneliness, in a surreal realistic way.Later on Aki came out with the 2nd and 3rd installments too in which there's another unforgettable funny scene in the Man Without a Past that is just as indelible.This is not a real review but a more a look back to the stick in the sand marker on my starting point toward Nordic Cinema.

Another beautifully observed vignette from the mind of Aki Kaurismaki. Kati Outinen may not be the most beautiful woman in Europe, but like Guiletta Massima, she owns every scene she's in. Kaurismaki's usual suspects deliver a tight ensemble piece drenched in bathos, and inspired by the indomitable spirit of honest working people. The fatalism that cloaks the the lives of the central characters as they fall on successively harder times, until all they have left is their dignity. The sound of the unseen roulette wheel in the unseen casino interior is the death rattle for their minimal life savings. Naturally, with this being a modern fable, Kaurismaki will not let his heroes suffer in eternity, and manages to engineer a happy ending, albeit one with a heartstopping pirouette.The score is a delight, from the piano player's melancholy jazz introduction to the tango lament at the last night of the Dubrovnik. Kaurismaki has an ear for haunting songs, and always sets them perfectly in context.As noted by other reviewers, this is the complete antithesis to the crash, bang, wallop, ersatz hysteria of Hollywood. Personally, I find it it all the more thrilling for that. It's a white-knuckle ride through the despair of sudden unemployment, tinged with touching fidelity, optimism and above all, dignity. Bravo, Aki.

I particularly liked Man Without A Past, by the same director, and this is much in the same vein. A couple having financial difficulties tries to make their way. Sounds like all of us. Only this couple delivers delicious witty dialogue in a deadpan style that cracks me up every time. Even their fights and make ups are so understated that it's a style all it's own. Don't look for the obvious here, it's hidden under a layer of Finnish humor so opaque that you have to watch very closely to see even a glimmer of laughter in anyone's eye.The film is gloomy, depressing, bleak, but somehow it does your heart good. Even when things seem to be at their worst, you can't help but feel that the hardworking and honest couple will manage to somehow get back on solid ground and right with the world. You want them to. You need them to. They simply must, or your poor little heart will break.It's hard to describe this film because nothing much seems to happen, there are only the normal setbacks of life in the low income zone, but by the end you realize that you've seen a great movie and are happy with it. What helps keep you interested are the dialogue and the understated style. For example, why do all the men wear their hair the same way? Does anyone own clothes that aren't drab? Why does all the furniture look like it's from the 1950's? All these questions and more will occur to you while watching the film and wondering if anyone will ever crack a smile.

I saw Drifting Clouds at a film festival, and I was truly blown away by the intense and true-to-life emotions this movie portrayed. Formerly being a Hollywood-action film kind of a guy, seeing Drifting Clouds has made me more open to artistic and especially foreign films. Director Kaurismaki is in my opinion one of the best directors in the world.