Fallen Leaves – 8.5

Spare. Simple. Sweet. Director Aki Kaurismaki’s visual vocabulary sets the mood: images are planar, geometric, frill-less, close-up, held still. There is no recession into space until the final shot. The world is bleak: colors are drab, jobs are mundane, the outside world, via radio, is death in Ukraine. The supporting cast are notably unattractive–overweight, dour, uninspired. But our heroine and hero are so attractive you wonder how they can be struggling so much–in poverty, without good jobs, family or romantic partner and apparently only one friend. They meet and amid the terminal emptiness around them they act out the oldest story in the movies. It’s like a Lower Depths version of Notting Hill. Alma Poysti is sensational: a wink from her is dynamite. Jussi Vatanen is just as good, although he smokes like Leonard Bernstein. Time called this a perfect little movie, and I can’t disagree.