A Man's Job

I recently saw this at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Director/Writer Aleksi Salmenperä, Producer Tero Kaukomaa and Actor Jani Volanen were on hand for a Q&A following the film. This film was Finland's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Award and is the second feature for Salmenperä. This is a small film but very good and features a great cast with plenty of interesting characters. Juha (Tommi Korpela) is a big, strong stone worker at a factory who has resorted to stealing company equipment to help make ends meet at home where he has three young children and a depression medicated wife Katja (Maria Heiskanen). After Juha loses his job he decides to try his luck as a handyman doing bulletin board solicited home repairs. With the help of his best friend Oli (Jani Volanen), his new job quickly evolves into that of a male prostitute for mature women with Oli serving as his secretary and chauffeur and another friend creating a website to offer his services on. Katja of course, must not find out about Juha losing his job and his new line of work so another friend covers for him at his old job should his wife call there and Juha leaves the house early every day to give the illusion of his typical job routine and changes into his old work clothes before he comes home. Since much of his work as a male call guy is at night he concocts a story that he is doing a home repair job after work for extra money that will take several months to complete. There are plenty of comic situations here but it is also a gritty drama and Salmenperä did a lot of research into the world of heterosexual male prostitutes to come up with his story which give a believability to the clientèle Juha encounters. Nicely photographed by cinematographer Tuomo Hutri, I would give this an 8.0 out of 10 and recommend it.

Juha (Tommi Korpela) is the middle-aged father of two and the husband of a depressed wife. Too afraid to tell his depressed wife that he has lost his job as a construction worker, Juha tries to make a living by offering his services to private customers, with little success. When he's contacted by a slightly older woman who turns out to want more than just the reconstruction of her living room, Juha secretly joins the sex industry in to be able to support his family. This provides the setting for a story about the responsibilities of a family man and shame.

Movies about the sex industry tend to fall into four main categories. There are moralistic tales about the depravity and dangers of the industry, exploitative movies that use the theme as an easy excuse for excessive nudity, light-hearted comedies about the liberation and empowerment through open sexuality, and realistic stories about the cruel and abusive nature of prostitution. Strangely enough, Miehen Työ doesn't really fit into any of these categories. On the contrary of what one might think after reading the summary, it's a remarkably un-erotic film. The theme of male prostitution isn't the focus of the film, but a mere extension to the net of lies Juha spins when he tries to hide his family the fact that he's unemployed. This story isn't about sex - it's about humiliation and shame that stems from Juha's failure to do what he believes is expected of him. What's a man to do when he can't even do his duty? Ultimately, the movie becomes a study of the roles of a man - or the job of a man, as the title puts it. Is it really more important for a good husband and a father to keep the money coming than to actually be there for his family when they need him the most?

Overall, Miehen Työ is a bleak, bleak movie about the harsh reality of everyday life. It isn't light-hearted entertainment, but I personally enjoyed it. Tommi Korpela is fantastic in the lead role, portraying the everyman who paradoxically degrades himself to preserve his pride. I also liked Jani Volanen as Juha's troubled best friend Olli, who discreetly tries to replace Juha by spending time with his family when Juha himself is gone.

At the time of writing IMDb advise that the UK title for this film is, 'A Man's Work' but it was shown as, 'A Man's Job' at its London Film Festival screening yesterday, which I would have thought was a better title. As for the film itself, it is rather difficult to enjoy because of all the unhappiness on display. It is an insightful and compassionate piece of work but hard to get very close to those involved. Finland sits twixt Scandinavia and the old Soviet block and have until the first world war been first part of Sweden and then Russia. We consider Scandinavians to be prone to depression, perhaps because of the cold and darkness and maybe Finns suffer more because of the added element of schizophrenia. Anyway, everybody here seems dysfunctional and when you discover that the film tells of its main character getting involved in offering services to older ladies and even a Down's syndrome sufferer, things don't get much more cheery. Its well done and for the most part, almost convincing but it is badly let down by the ending. I assume that this is intended as a happy ending and perhaps to the Finns it is but to me and my fellow, stunned into silence, cinema goers, it seemed a desperately sad end indeed.