(Finland, 110 min.)
Dir. Mika Kaurismäki, Writ. Sami Keski-Vähälä, Mika
Kaurismäki
Starring: Vesa-Matti Loiri (Leo), Samuli Edelman, Mari
Perankoski. Irina Björklund
“In Finland, you can just go knock on your relatives’ door,”
says Leo (Vesa-Matti Loiri) to his estranged son Timo (Samuli Edelman) as they
arrive unannounced on the doorstep of Leo’s equally estranged daughter (Mari
Perankoski). Leo himself had just arrived unexpectedly on Timo’s doorstep the
night before, introducing himself as the father who bailed on him thirty years
earlier and inviting himself to spend the night, so the Fins seem to be a very
trusting people as this droll comedy from writer/director Mika Kaurismäki
suggests. Kaurismäki, brother of filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre), offers a quirky and affable road movie that’s bound to
delight audiences with its tale of family ties when it screens tonight at
Ottawa’s European Union Film Festival.
Road North offers a humours spin on father-son bonding as Leo arrives in his son’s life at the very moment he is in need of guidance. Leo drops into Timo’s life like a rotund, boorish guardian angel, and he leads Timo down a road of rediscovery as he imparts the mistakes of his life so that his son can learn to be a better father. (Timo’s own family is on the verge of breaking up when the story begins.)
Road North jovially subverts the coming-of-age trope of the road
movie as Kaurismäki mixes black humour with screwball comedy and Timo finds the
rough-and-tumble genes of his own life that have slipped through the cracks. Kaurismäki’s
slice-of-life observation of family matters is shrewd and smart.Deftly
satirical, Road North offers several
unusual father/son bonding moments like an amusing fishing episode that results
in a kidnapped cat, a tag-team hook-up with a mother/daughter duo, and some
jaunts to the sauna with a few puffs of pot. Leo reminisces all the while about
the mother that Timo never knew, so this crash course in relationships is as
much an act of atonement as it is one of amusement. The morals of Leo's stories are often as ridiculous as his flashy bowling alley shirts, but he speaks with the authority of a wise-old crackpot who sounds crazy enough to be a voice of reason.
The raucous larger-than-life performance by Loiri as Leo reminds
viewers that we inevitably end up like our parents no matter how much we wish
we would not, while Edelman is appropriately suited for the role of the straight
man as Timo wrestles with daddy issues along the way. The journey down which
Leo takes his son is mysterious, since he plays coy with his reasons why they
need to take a trip together up north, but it’s a peculiar odyssey of family bonds
that becomes more endearing as it progresses.
Rating: ★★★1/2 (out of ★★★★★)
Road North screens at the European Union Film Festival on
Friday, Nov. 21 at 7:00 pm at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington St.
The European Union
Film Festival runs Nov. 13-30.
Please visit www.cfi-icf.ca for more information on this
year’s festival.
More coverage of the European Union Film Festival may be found here.
More coverage of the European Union Film Festival may be found here.
