just watch it!

Good idea lost in the noise

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Old man (Antti Litja) has lived all his life in the Finnish countryside, without any benefits of modern society worth mentioning (he got his first radio in the 1960's!!) and now alone too since some time ago the missus walked out of the house after a minor dispute and then later as her health deteriorated was committed to senior home. But when Old Man injures his leg one day even he must agree that there's no way he could manage by himself and thus has to move at least temporarily to live with his son's (Ilkka Forss) family in the Helsinki suburbs. When Old Man arrives only the daughter-in-law (Mari Perankoski) is present for a time being, and very soon her initial slight suspicions about the arrangement turn out to be an understatement to say the least...As everyone else in Finland I too rate our great veteran-actor Antti Litja very high up there, but unfortunately the tour-de-force performance gets muddled by the impossible character - even by comic standards - he's forced to play here: God knows there are a thousand stupid phenomenon from which to choose in the modern world, but here 'The Grump' has been made so totally devoid of reality that his ranting never has anything to give to anybody. He only comes across as a senile hick. And this fact is even furthermore emphasized by his eager but constantly failing actions as a helpful citizen, so what was really the point here plot- and message-wise, anyhow? Actors do what they can with the material they got I guess, still especially Forss' (The Son) terribly written character is a downright disaster. We are also led to believe that in the house owned by SALES EXECUTIVE (=daughter-in-law) there is no means to make regular coffee even for quests'/clients' satisfaction... Except that Old Man finds a coffeemaker HE once gave them as a present from a closet (still in its package) but don't seem to know how to use it! By the way, when that old lady left him where on earth did she go at first? Etc etc.Yes yes it's a comedy, and so funny too I laughed exactly once out loud: in the scene concerning crossword puzzles. Despite the fact it was as stupid as anything else in this another waste of potential opportunity to make a decent Finnish picture. But even stupidity can't make a clockwork orange me 'grumpy' anymore, just more numby.

We went to see this in the GFT and we are are British Finnish couple. As a Brit I've been made to suffer many Finnish films and this was by far the best :). I really enjoyed it.It was very funny and really made you think about the difference between generations, gender and culture- in fact I'm still thinking about the things in it that made me laugh and whether they were because my partner is Finnish, a man or suck in the past!I thought the end the film was quite beautiful and showed an example of how even with age, experience and stubbornness we can still be wrong but realise the beauty in the people around us is a thing to treasure and love.

I haven't read any of the books before seeing the movie. Of course I did my background checks, and was first disappointed with the fact that there wasn't much left of what I expected The Grump to be.But the warmth oh Antti Litja's character completely blew me away. Remember, he is The Grump, this is his movie. Maybe the story is a bit detached at certain times, maybe the plot is a bit shattered. But this is an old man's story, this is HIS story. I expected him to be much more "against everything" ... but he was a really warm character, really trying to do his best to understand a world he really couldn't. From his point on view, what would this world look like? Too busy, too broken, too cold. Maybe, the movie jumps a bit too much, and lacks continuity in the plot. It might lack some sense ... but that's exactly like the Grump sees it. So, maybe, the movie shows it exactly like it should.

I had low expectations with this movie, but it was still quite disappointing. I have not read the book the story is based on, but it has to be better than this.The movie totally lacks good spirit and for the viewer it's difficult to decide which genre this movie is trying to be. There's some awkward comedy where you should be laughing to an elder, then there's some over the top drama and also little hint of trying to be an art-retro-type of movie.Movie might give you few good laughs if you leave your brains to sleep. However it lacks a lot of deepness and what made me dislike this movie the most is that the scenes are too separate to carry on a whole full feature film. Also it made the crowd feel sad that the daughter-in- law and son were so rude to 80-year old main character. There were too many scenes where daughter-in-law is angry with the old man because of his old believes and in one scene his son decides to crash his old loved car to a tree for some really selfish reason, but the story is told to the viewer as these people acted properly towards the old main character. I don't usually enjoy movies that lack clear morals without any believable explanation. However the main problem with Mielensäpahoittaja is the lack of structure and badly executed plot.