Fills its niche with perfection, but it’s a small niche indeed.
Taking deadpan into as yet uncharted territory, Lights in the Dusk is a bittersweet study of loneliness from Finnish maestro Aki Kaurismäki that rounds off his ‘Loser Trilogy’ after Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past.
Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) is a guard at a small shopping mall who dreams of one day starting his own high-tech security business. His only friends are the disheveled proprietor of a fast food van (Maria Heiskanen) and a pocketful of trusty rolling tobacco.
Then, out of nowhere, a femme fatale (Maria Järvenhelmi) working for a local crime syndicate asks him out on a date. It quickly becomes clear to everyone but our hero that her motives are less than benign.
The title alludes to the twilight vistas of Helsinki (gorgeously captured by DoP Timo Salminen) and the faint glimmer of hope in Koistinen’s life as an otherwise crippling solitude claws at his prospects for future contentment.
Indeed, everything that can go wrong does go wrong, as his humble existence is shattered simply because he’s not a particularly personable fellow. Respite does eventually muscle its way through the glumness, but it’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it stuff.
The film’s somnambulant pace perfectly complements Hyytiäinen’s anti-acting style. His facial expressions remain harshly neutral throughout, making Koistinen’s eventual half-smile at the film’s down-at-heel denouement all the more rewarding.
On occasion the dialogue is delivered so clunkily (with deliberate, extended pauses between each sentence) that it feels as if the characters are actually reading the subtitles as they come on screen.
The soundtrack, too, assembles Kaurismäki’s usual eclectic mix of old-time rock 'n' roll and contemporary Finnish pop to cement the film’s oddball milieu.
A great director who makes great films.
Sad, funny and beautiful all in one.
Fills its niche with perfection, but it’s a small niche indeed.
