The Match Factory Girl is a Finnish/ Swedish coproduction. Kati Outinen plays the title character, trapped in a deadly dull job and an even deadlier duller home life. Against her family's wishes, she purchases a bright red dress and heads out for a night on the town. She spends the evening with a handsome wealthy man, who shows how significant this sexual pairing is by leaving her alone the next morning with a large sum of money. Not wishing to tell her parents of her misadventure, Outinen splits the money with her brother, then waits in vain for her "lover" to return. When she finds she is pregnant, she writes a syrupy note to her erstwhile swain, who coldly sends her a money order and instructs her to get an abortion. Even her family turns on her when her condition becomes obvious. With her remaining savings, Outinen purchases a generous supply of rat poison--not for herself, but for all the people who did her dirt throughout the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
With its 70-minute running time and minimalist aesthetics, Aki Kaurismaki's The Match Factory Girl is so slender it barely qualifies as a feature. This downbeat tale of a homely girl looking for love and a life proceeds at a crawl, reflecting the drudgery of the working-class existence it documents. The quotidian drabness is perfectly visualized by Kaurismaki's economical camera work, which captures a decrepit city devoid of warmth and kindness. Focusing on a morosely timid girl, Kaurismaki constructs a world of almost unbearable meanness. Blithe cruelty abounds in this movie, from the oppression by the girl's mother and stepfather (reminiscent of a dark fairy tale) to her nonchalant rejection by a sleazy man who impregnates her on a one-night stand. The curious absence of compassion and redemption, coupled with the recurring theme of cash transactions, seems to amount to a political statement, evoking a world worn thin by an uncaring capitalist system. In its own miserablist terms, this unremittingly bleak work can be considered a success. Whether or not it is a success that audiences would want to subject themselves to is another matter. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide