Laitakaupungin valot (Lights in the Dusk)
2006
**
Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Cast: Janne Hyytiäinen, Maria Järvenhelmi, Maria Heiskanen, Ilkka Koivula, Matti Onnismaa, Sulevi Peltola, Antti Reini, Santtu Karvonen, Sesa Lehto, Svante Korkiakoski, Pertti Sveholm, Juhani Niemelä
Some directors have an idiosyncratic style and can successfully make more or less the same film over and over again. Then there are hacks who repeatedly make the same film, because that's all they can do. Aki Kaurismäki's scope is definitely very limited, but it's hard to say which group he belongs to. Following the impressive Drifting Clouds and Man Without a Past, the Loser Trilogy ends on a drab note. It's once again set in a Kaurismäki version of modern day Helsinki, where a lonely, gullible, and stupid security guard allows himself to be conned by a shady businessman and his girlfriend. Like the first two parts of the trilogy, the film depicts the plight of a working class man. However, I found it impossible to feel any sympathy for the protagonist, who sleepwalks through his own life. The director's stilted style and the film's total lack of humour turn this into a joyless affair.
