Kaarlo Kaski (Leif Wager), the son of a wealthy nouveau riche industrialist family, is appalled to find out that his separated wife Liisa (Elina Pohjanpää) has written a bestseller novel about their soon-to-be-over marriage and that Kaarlo and his family are portrayed as laughable buffoons in the book. Even though the couple is about to get a divorce, Kaarlo's snobby family comes up with a scheme to keep Liisa married to Kaarlo, thus preventing a humiliating scandal.
Even though the movie doesn't quite belong among my favourite old Finnish comedies, there are many enjoyable sequences to be found in the story. The flashback scenes describing Kaarlo and Liisa's first encounter and impulsive marriage in the beautiful Paris, France look very nice, and Kaarlo's later attempts of proving his manliness at a motocross track are amusingly action-packed. In addition, the silly music by Kalevi Hartti suits the mood well.
Many of the performances are funny and the actors suit their roles comfortably, even Leif Wager in the uncharacteristically nerdy lead role. His on-screen aunts also do a good job, particularly Gerda Ryselin as Aunt Gertrud, the matriarch of the Kaski family. I would also like to mention Hannes Häyrinen and Leo Jokela's small roles as the aunts' oppressed husbands, but the biggest praise goes to the very beautiful Elina Pohjanpää who portrays the perky Liisa with delightful energy and charisma. Toivo Mäkelä is also lovably slimy as Judge Simolin, the family's lawyer and the biggest schemer of them all.
Olin nahjuksen vaimo (great title, by the way) may not be the most memorable or hilarious entry in the history of comedy, but it achieves what it was going for and remains a watchable little movie with good performances and a few amusing sequences. Fans of typical Finn-films should enjoy the movie alright.
