The Man Without a Past (2002)

The Man Without a Past tackles many of the same themes as earlier films by Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, and does so with the same understated dark humor, but this film finds the Finn at his sunniest and most accessible. It follows the same pattern as Ariel, the film that first brought Kaurismaki to international attention, wherein a man loses everything, meets a woman who restores his sense of hope, and then has it all threatened again as he inadvertently plunges into a criminal enterprise. With Ariel, Kaurismaki plumbed the depths of dark humor, getting laughs from the offhand way he presented a suicide early in the film. While there's an underlying despair to Man Without a Past as well, it never descends into hopelessness. These characters don't need so much to be content, and one believes they might be able to find a little happiness and hold onto it, whether it's derived from having a sparkling jukebox in the middle of one's sparsely furnished hovel, or from believing that your sweet female puppy dog is a vicious beast named "Hannibal," capable of tearing the nose off a man's face. Kaurismaki uses a much brighter palette than he has in the past (and that glowing orange jukebox is a good example). The cast, including Kaurismaki stalwart Kati Outinen do right by the director with their understated performances. The title character's (Markku Peltola) "life after death" experience may be some kind of a dream, but it offers an amusing and extremely satisfying view of humanity. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide