Rööperi

Every country has its mainstream and underground filmmakers; in Finland the most well-known and popular modern director of all might be Aleksi Mäkelä. Many of his films, mostly produced by Markus Selin of Solar Films, have achieved great popularity and often feature the most famous Finnish actors in lead roles. My own favourite of Mäkelä's work is probably The Tough Ones (1999), but his latest crime drama Rööperi is very watchable as well, an opinion shared by the common public (the film was the most watched domestic movie in its year of release).

The story is loosely based on a non-fiction book about the life of a former criminal Tom Sjöberg. At the beginning in 1966, Tomppa (Samuli Edelmann) and his friends Krisu and Kari (Peter Franzén and Kari Hietalahti) are getting fed up with the small scale of their illegal liquor selling business in Punavuori, Helsinki ("Rööperi" of the title). With hard fists and even harder attitudes they expand their territories and make more money, but are also aware that their criminal lifestyle can only have three different outcomes: going straight, prison or death. Tomppa is the most responsible of the bunch and opens a sex shop to earn a (somewhat) honest living for himself and his wife Monika (Pihla Viitala), while Kari cannot really get a grip on life after losing his mother. Krisu, in turn, becomes involved in drug trading with devastating consequences.

Markus Selin productions have always had an "international" feel to them, meaning that they have spent good money to make the films look professional and that the production values are decent. Rööperi is not an exception; the Helsinki of the 1960s and 70s looks very stylish, largely thanks to the experienced cinematographer Pini Hellstedt. Especially the streets in the menacing opening scene bask in beautiful green light and many of the shady interiors are handsomely shadowy. Certain camera angles and movements are also showier than in average Finnish movies, but luckily do not cross the border into annoying, distracting trickery.

The core of the film, the story, is fairly interesting too. The very spine of the plot is Tomppa's development from a street thug to an increasingly honest businessman despite personal tragedies and his feelings of responsibility regarding his wife and friends who just cannot see where their lives are heading at until it is already too late. Tomppa is very nicely portrayed by the charismatic singer-actor Samuli Edelmann, but Kari Hietalahti and Peter Franzén don't fall behind one bit in their roles of Kari and Krisu respectively – the latter's performance as the miserable junkie actually belongs among the best I have seen in any recent Finnish film. The supporting actors do good work as well, particularly Pekka Valkeejärvi as the brutal rivaling criminal Uki and Juha Veijonen as the fatherly police lieutenant Koistinen. The one exception would be the way too young-looking Jasper Pääkkönen in the role of the mobster Korppu: he makes without a doubt the least convincing gangster boss I have ever seen in any movie.

In spite of the mostly great acting and carefully created visuals, some things hold Rööperi back from being a really great film. For one thing, I feel the use of music is often too openly manipulative, even corny. The presumably exaggerated badassness of the antagonists Uki and Korppu does not always ring true and evokes feelings of style over substance at points, but on the other hand it is good that Finnish cinema is not always so afraid of stylization and flair. In any case, Tomppa's story is worth telling with or without flashiness and the movie never feels boring despite the 120+ minute runtime. The first time I saw it at the theater I didn't care for Rööperi much, but after a rewatch on DVD it started seeming a lot more dramatic and interesting than before. Perhaps a less tough, more low-key approach could have improved the movie, but I like it as it is now as well.

Two commentators of this movie must be some upper class gentlemen. If you have experienced the middle/lower class living and you recognize a great movie, you will enjoy this movie very much. The cast is filled with the best movie actors of the present time which isn't anything special in Finland.

It just amazes me how funny Hietalahti can be on the film screen. Just like in the Vares movies. The same fun continues on Rööperi. I can't figure any bad performance from any actors in this movie. Just brilliant acting overall.

The Criticism for performance of Jasper Pääkkönen as the "Gangster boss" is pretty harsh. I think he did his job fairly well nothing too special but at least not bad. And he was meant to look young and not so tuff that was the whole idea.

I've watched many good Finnish films but nothing quite like this. I don't care what the critics say, but for me this was the greatest Finnish movie of all-time.

The summary pretty much.. erh.. sums it up. The film follows a group of friends who take over the illegal distribution of hard liquor in Helsinki in the mid 60s. What follows is a typical story of the rise and fall of these wanna be gangsters.

The movie hardly offers anything new to the tired formula, but there are some good performances such as Edelmann in the leading role and especially the ALWAYS funny Hietalahti in a supporting role. For once, Franzen does his part a bit too over the top, but that's nothing compared to the disaster that is Pääkkönen's "mob boss". The guy looks like he's 12 and the role is passionless and feels phoned in.

This will no doubt be a great success here in Finland, but the fact that it's the best of the worst, doesn't make it a good film.

Profound story about the decay of the characters in the plot. Portrait and faithful atmosphere of the time. Best Finnish films I've ever seen. Great perfomance by Peter Franzèn.