The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, 2016.
Directed by Juho Kuosmanen.
Starring Jarkko Lahti, Oona Airola and Eero Milonoff.
SYNOPSIS:
Finnish boxer Olli Maki gets a shot at the world featherweight boxing title, but he has something else on his mind. He’s fallen in love. Will he be a winner? Based on true events.
If there was an award for the longest and most cumbersome film title of the year, The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki would be right up there with the best of them. The irony is that the film itself is remarkably light on its feet.
In the summer of 1962 Finland’s favourite boxer, Olli Maki (Jarkko Lahti), has moved down a category to featherweight so he can get a shot at the world title. His manager Elis (Eero Milonoff), an ex-boxer himself, is pushing his protégé hard, drumming up sponsorship and holding press conferences. He loves his sport, but Olli is discovering there’s more to life than just the boxing ring. He’s fallen in love with a local girl, Raija (Oona Airola) and, much as he tries to concentrate on staying at the right weight and getting match fit, he just can’t get her out of his mind.
It’s all based on a true story, so true that the real Olli and Raija make a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance towards the end of the film. And their fleeting moment in front of the camera is typical of them as a couple and of Olli in particular. He’s an affable, unassuming, small town guy whose natural talent as a boxer catapults him into the spotlight. And it’s not a place where he’s comfortable: he’s awkward in a suit, says the wrong thing at press conferences and can’t relax in front of a camera. He’s a man of simple tastes: skimming stones on the lake with Raija is more his kind of thing.
That simplicity and charm is echoed throughout the film which, although it has a boxer at the centre, is about as far from the likes of Rocky, Raging Bull or, more recently, Bleed For This, as you can get. They were all about triumph over adversity. This is a love story, pure and simple. And if Olli has to face any adversity, it’s the publicity circus that goes with his title bout. But that’s stretching a point.
Hand in hand with the romance goes some very human humour, much of which comes from Olli’s awkwardness away from the ring. A documentary crew follows his progress in the run-up to the fight – what Elis tells him will be the happiest day of his life – and, if the staged shots we witness are anything to go by, it’ll be an unintentional hoot. Yet underneath the laughter is just a whisper of dread: Olli knows he can’t escape the inevitable yet, deep down, he wants to be somewhere else and with somebody else.
The black and white photography anchors it beautifully in the 1960s, along with the dial telephones, cameras with flash attachments and press conferences that look positively demure compared to today’s ultra-hyped spectacles. It’s an enormously likeable film and a delightfully fresh take on the usual sporting biopic. Cannes loved it last year: it won Un Certain Regard. Olli himself may be a diminutive dynamo but the film is a knock-out.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Freda Cooper – Follow me on Twitter, check out my movie blog and listen to my podcast, Talking Pictures.
Originally published April 19, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
