Riisuttu mies (2006) User Reviews

First miss of Louhimies

[holsu · 2/10 · 19 December 2007]

This is such crap.

Aku Louhimies is by far the most talented director in Finland. At least of the younger generation. I hadn't much expectations on this movie since it didn't seem to be as interesting as Louhimies earlier production. Still this was a huge disappointment.

One big problem with Louhimies is his casting. He goes on with the same stars on and on and personally I'm bored with most of them, especially Samuli Edelmann, Laura Malmivaara (wife of the director) and Mikko Kouki. Not very satisfied seeing Matti Ristinen and Matleena Kuusniemi either. So it could be time to find a new acting team.

The story is about a priest, his relationship to his wife and ambitions in his career. My tolerance broke down in the first half hour which to me mostly included running from one place to another. In between the running there was a lot of unnecessary nudity and drinking.

It is somehow difficult to understand how an important director like Louhimies hasn't realized that the story sucks. When I saw the movie I couldn't avoid thinking, that he must have had thoughts about making a mistake.

We can only forgive him for his mistake and hope he'll achieve his normal standard again soon.

Another disgrace to the Finnish film industry

[slayerholmes · 1/10 · 28 November 2008]

It's hard to say if this isn't the most intolerable Finnish movie ever, the competition is very close. Admirable effort to be sure. The plot: fat man (Samuli Edelmann) with ponytail drinks and screws, on occasion he jumps around naked with no purpose; in a nutshell he acts all the time in a totally unpredictable manner and what he says doesn't most of the time make any sense. The catch is that this man is a priest! But wait a minute... so is virtually every character in this movie! One of them gets fired because he drinks TOO much but I guess Edelmann is compared to him an angel because he is despite all considered to the position of bishop! Edelmann's pretty wife is also a priest but still he can't abstain himself from cheating her with another female priest. Who has nothing to say about it afterwards. She becomes pregnant of course. She has nothing much to say about that either, just admit the situation. The background of the story is a city of Turku, but nothing is done to emphasize local color nor no-one speaks with that very distinctive accent they have there. Futile to ask, but just how believable is all this?

So in the end everyone is happy as a one big family around bishop Edelmann, they are celebrating something and Edelmann's old & half-crazy father-in-law starts for some reason to howl annoyingly as hell. Which actually ends this mess quite suitably, after all.

Lovable and truly Nordic story that I recommend

[alperyte · 9/10 · 12 January 2013]

Hi. Just seen the movie in Vilnius, Lithuania. Elegant humor, subtle "Nordic" lifestyle critique and lots of love to a human being -- this is what I saw in the movie. The director is right stating in his interviews being rather close to Kieslowski's philosophy: he is not questioning the Decalogue but rather discussing on it with us. The main character, a protestant priest, is trying to match his artsy soul, live flesh and "celestial" duties. Besides, he has problems with his male potential because of his inclination to drinking. While his wife is trying to get him promoted to the bishop's state, he continues living a sinful though very understandable and rather easy life familiar to all of us. I was impressed by the end of the movie: his sermon which is to be shortly shown on television suddenly turns into the improvised song (the genre in which the character is clearly more talented than in writing texts to his own sermons. The song is about him being a human, who is dressed in the priest's clothes only by "formal" requirements. Otherwise, he is only a mediator between his visitors and The God.

Thumbs up: I had a warm and emotional evening in the snowy (frozen) Nordic city. Thanks again, the existing rating (to me) is really inadequate. I give much more!