GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

squelcho Another beautifully observed vignette from the mind of Aki Kaurismaki. Kati Outinen may not be the most beautiful woman in Europe, but like Guiletta Massima, she owns every scene she's in. Kaurismaki's usual suspects deliver a tight ensemble piece drenched in bathos, and inspired by the indomitable spirit of honest working people. The fatalism that cloaks the the lives of the central characters as they fall on successively harder times, until all they have left is their dignity. The sound of the unseen roulette wheel in the unseen casino interior is the death rattle for their minimal life savings. Naturally, with this being a modern fable, Kaurismaki will not let his heroes suffer in eternity, and manages to engineer a happy ending, albeit one with a heartstopping pirouette.The score is a delight, from the piano player's melancholy jazz introduction to the tango lament at the last night of the Dubrovnik. Kaurismaki has an ear for haunting songs, and always sets them perfectly in context.As noted by other reviewers, this is the complete antithesis to the crash, bang, wallop, ersatz hysteria of Hollywood. Personally, I find it it all the more thrilling for that. It's a white-knuckle ride through the despair of sudden unemployment, tinged with touching fidelity, optimism and above all, dignity. Bravo, Aki.

slake09 I particularly liked Man Without A Past, by the same director, and this is much in the same vein. A couple having financial difficulties tries to make their way. Sounds like all of us. Only this couple delivers delicious witty dialogue in a deadpan style that cracks me up every time. Even their fights and make ups are so understated that it's a style all it's own. Don't look for the obvious here, it's hidden under a layer of Finnish humor so opaque that you have to watch very closely to see even a glimmer of laughter in anyone's eye.The film is gloomy, depressing, bleak, but somehow it does your heart good. Even when things seem to be at their worst, you can't help but feel that the hardworking and honest couple will manage to somehow get back on solid ground and right with the world. You want them to. You need them to. They simply must, or your poor little heart will break.It's hard to describe this film because nothing much seems to happen, there are only the normal setbacks of life in the low income zone, but by the end you realize that you've seen a great movie and are happy with it. What helps keep you interested are the dialogue and the understated style. For example, why do all the men wear their hair the same way? Does anyone own clothes that aren't drab? Why does all the furniture look like it's from the 1950's? All these questions and more will occur to you while watching the film and wondering if anyone will ever crack a smile.

jaakkochan The movie has a feeling of sinking ship. Yes, you heard right. The setbacks which haunts the maincharacters are so cruel that only real life can do something like this to people. I happen to live quite close to places where this has made, and friend of mine wondered how Kaurismaki had found such a ruined places from Helsinki! This looks like some dirty streets in NY! The actors and actresses are magnificent. And the music has it's melancholic feeling of autumn as ever. Yes, definably this is something you should see.

Rislakki Kauas Pilvet Karkaavat (Drifting Clouds) is a moving film about two unemployed folks in Finland. This film is one of the best Finnish films there is. Finnish films aren't very good, though.There isn't enough real emotions in the movie. I can understand why it won the best foreign film award in Belgium. I just don't like the Finnish style of movie-making. Still, it is very enjoyable.