Lapland Odyssey

I've seen Napapiirin Sankarit or Lapland Odyssey once before in Middle School, when we watched it in class. At the time I didn't have my blog nor did I think that much of movies, and especially Finnish movies felt almost foreign to me, so I rarely watched any outside of school at least.

Someone actually talked about the way this film starts in school – because it doesn't start with the main character Janne. It starts with his friend and his narration. He talks about the tree many men in the area used to hang themselves from. It's an interesting way to start, mostly because that's super dark – but it suits the movie and it suits Finland – but also because there has to be a shift in the point of view, if you want to change from the side character to the main character. That shift works well though. It's smooth, and it feels natural to start following Janne not getting the digital TV box.

The story is fun, and it's entertaining to see what kind of misadventures the main characters get themselves into. It's not the most original comedy out there, when you consider it globally, but at least around the time when it came out, it stood out from most of Finnish comedies. Mostly it's not as bad as some, since there are Finnish comedies I refuse to watch because of the cast and the fact that the movies are remakes of a Danish comedy. I'm not mentioning the movie by name, but I think my Finnish readers know exactly what I'm talking about. Also Napapiirin Sankarit did win four Jussi awards, for best direction, best film, best screenplay and people's choice award, and a Silver Dolphin for best cinematography at Tróia International Film Festival, and two awards at Alpe d'Huez International Comedy Film Festival.

Napapiirin Sankarit is entertaining and it looks amazing, and it takes place in the north, which is a plus since most modern movies seem to take place in the southern Finland. It's definitely worth seeing, whether or not you're from Finland or elsewhere, except most Finnish people have probably seen it already. However I'm not sure about the sequels. I haven't seen them, and they are not directed by Dome Karukoski, but at least the third one is directed by Tiina Lymi, who also directed one of my favourite Finnish movies, Äkkilähtö. Not sure if I'll ever watch them though, since they feel forced. The first one is always the best, right?

I thought it was going to be a hilarious comedy, Hangover style - with stupid, but believable characters and comprehensible plot. Instead it was a mess to watch. The actions of the morons made no sense. Their personalities were unbelievable. Maybe if they were completely stoned, but they weren't! It wouldn't have mattered much to me if the situations they found themselves in were funny, but I couldn't even laugh at them! I kept waiting and hoping for the film to get better, to resemble the trailer I saw... I should have known better.

Oh, wow. This ending is one of the finest I've ever seen. Absolutely brilliant. The movie Hangover has clearly been riding along when Pekko Pesonen typed this madness down. His scenes are seriously over you, like a group of killer bikini chicks. Very nice. At first I thought I had walked into an exhausting exercise in endurance of sole stupidity, but then I realized my mistake. These buddies are in fact in a confused state of mind due to unemployment. Hence mentally crippled and do the best they can. This is a very unfortunate clarity blunder, but otherwise director Dome Karukoski's movie is a master class in consistency. Much thanks to Jussi Vatanen's believable laid back style.

One of Dome Karukoski's earlier films and certainly one of his funniest, Lapland Odyssey is essentially a catastrophe road-trip movie. A deadbeat man living in the months long night of Lapland gets an ultimatum from his wife. Either he gets her the digital television adapter he has been promising her for ages, or they're through. And he only has until the morning to do so. The only problem? It's already late evening, he has no car and the nearest all-night electronics store is hundreds of kilometers away.

From that basic setting we end up getting one of the funniest Finnish films I've ever seen. And I think the reason why I found this to be so funny, when Finnish film humour usually does nothing for me, is the fact that the characters take it so seriously. For the man and his two equally deadbeat friends this is truly an odyssey. They're on a quest to save to man's marriage and they will go to extreme lengths to achieve their goal. No winking at the camera, no forced jokes, no pop culture or modern events references. Just great characters and them getting into trouble.

The film is also beautifully shot, well-acted and features some stunning shots of winter Lapland. If I had to name one problem, I'd say that the Finnish stereotypes can be a bit forced from time to time. Oftentimes they're the best source of humour in the film, but from time to time they wander into groan territory. Still, a very minor problem in the grand scheme of things.

Lapland Odyssey is certainly worth a watch for all fans of comedy and for all those that have liked one of Karukoski's other films.

Napapiirin sankarit is an overly hyped Finnish movie that was said to portray a life of Finnish men. Well firstly the main characters in this film are hollow caricatures of the group of people they portray. They are nothing but stupid and live on welfare. That just seems boring and offensive enough and just every aspect of the plot is made clear in the beginning. I only found myself smiling a few times but that doesn't really make a good comedy because the film itself was dragging all the way.

It felt like the film lacked many elements that make it watchable and smooth. Firstly the characters weren't all that interesting, they just were plain stupid. Now that isn't enough for a viewer to actually care about them. Secondly the plot seriously needed more depth to it to make it last for the 90 minutes. Thirdly it seems like the script was written in a day as it isn't that complex. Fourthly the old and used clichés should have been avoided because this film is just full of them.

Lastly, all Finnish movies need some Russian character to misbehave or just remind of the second world war. It's amazing how many clichés can be packed in just one movie.

Of course i understand that in farce comedies everything seems to go wrong but at least it should be funny. I don't know that would i actually need a mindset of a woman to actually find the overall silliness of the men really funny.