Matti

For those of you who are not familiar with the titular "hero", Matti Nykänen, he is this Finnish Olympic gold-medalist, who was a folk hero back in the 80's, 'cause he brought ski-jumping medals by the boat loads. Here's where it gets tricky. Today he's nothing. He's a bottom feeder, who does anything to stay in the headlines. And even that seems like an understatement. How's that, one might ask. Well, since his professional career ended, he has started a ridiculous singing career (he can sell a few albums, but people buy them and show up to his gigs purely out of humor), he's been a stripper (!), he's been to prison, he has found God and he has married a woman he beats up every once in a while. What's not to like? Plus, he's clearly a retard.

Matti, the movie about him, tries to sell his story to the viewer as he would be the victim in all of this. Which is of course total BS. A lot of the stupid things he's done and God forbid *is still doing*, have come from people daring him. For heaven's sake, HOW HARD IS IT TO JUST SAY "NO"?! And stupid things like jumping off a bridge, or something. Plus when you rarely see him doing an interview his eyes are wondering everywhere and he makes statements like you wouldn't believe.. he's like The Waterboy, but with half the IQ.

This is a naive film with some good performances, but even those can't hide the fact that this film's been made with the intention of ripping the ticket fare from the Finnish audience, who are there just to see the joke that this man is. Not the sensitive side, because with he's real actions this far gone, no-one's buying that he even has one.

** / *****