This film feels like it was made on a dare. It feels like the type of challenge Lars Von Trier would lay down in The Five Obstructions: make a Film Noir - without guilt.
Unlike a traditional Film Noir, where the world is working against the protagonist as some sort of self-fulfilling, guilt manifestation, the hero of this film is guilty of nothing. He doesn't even have an opportunity to become guilty. People are hating him from the very start and for no stated reason. And it's not even some Kafka-esque exercise in paranoia because our hero is oblivious to all the ways in which people are conspiring against him. He's also equally oblivious to the few people out there who give a damn about him.
So is this Film Noir? No. But it is an Aki Kaurismäki film. And that's certainly something to savor.
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