MovieChat Forums > Vadelmavenepakolainen (2014) Discussion > An okay movie, but a few things strain c...

An okay movie, but a few things strain credulity (SPOILERS)


I thought this was an okay movie, but after a strong first act, I was a bit disappointed that the movie largely abandoned the social satire in favour of the comedy of errors resulting from Mikko impersonating Mikael, and the more typical romantic comedy plot. Also, I realize a comedy like this isn't supposed to be overtly realistic, but there were a few things that I still felt were too odd and contrived:

* The movie begins with Mikko about kill himself, as he feels he'll never become a Swede. However, it's never explained why he can't just move to Sweden and stay there, as hundreds of thousands of Finns have done before him. He speaks good Swedish (much better than most Finns do), so he would probably be able to find a job in Stockholm, and in a few years he could apply for a Swedish citizenship. And if his stereotypical Finnish name bothers him, he could change it to a Swedish one. Obviously this kind of a plot would've lead to a rather different movie, but I thought it was odd they didn't even bother to explain why simply moving to Sweden wasn't an option for Mikko.

* The way Mikko talks and acts makes him come across as mentally challenged, yet no one seems to pay attention to it. Lotta falls for him, he's succesful at his job, everything goes according to his plan, even though his impersonation of a Swedish man is not credible at all, it just makes him look crazy.

* For the satire to work, the movie needs to paint a stark contrast between Finland and Sweden, and mostly I'm fine with this. The movie isn't about Finnish and Swedish cultures as they really are, rather than about the stereotypes of these countries that exist in the heads of the protagonists. However, where this contrast doesn't work is the kidney donation plot in the finale. We are lead to believe than in Sweden the state bureaucracy wouldn't allow Maria to donate her kidney to a paperless man without an official identity (the real Mikael), but in Finland this would be okay simply because the Finnish doctor feels he owes Mikko a favour. That's just not how things work. The bureaucracy in Finland is just as strong as in Sweden, and the doctor simply couldn't perform the operation without the proper paperwork, which the protagonists don't have. Finnish and Swedish mainstream cultures may be a bit different, but when it comes to legislature and bureaucracy, the two countries are quite alike.

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