Koistinen (Janne Hyytiäinen) is a stoic (of course he's stoic, this is
an Aki Kaurismäki film) security guard, nothing more than a small-fry
wageslave in a dead end job, and his attempts to start his own security
service are stillborn. His only real friend appears to be Aila (Maria
Heiskanen), who runs the hot dog stand where he occcasionally eats - but
somehow the two of them are never able to communicate properly.
Then one day, Koistinen meets lovely Mirja (Maria Järvenhelmi), who
seems hellbent on going out with him, and soon the two have something that
almost resembles a relationship ... but actually, Mirja is only working
for a gang of gangsters who want to get their hands on the keys and
security coded of the mall he's working at and especially of the jeweller
in that mall - and of course, before long, Mirja has drugged Koistinen and
her accomplices empty the jeweller. When questioned by the police,
Koistinen refuses to give Mirja away, and is himself released due to lack
of evidence.
Eventually, Mirja pays Koitinen another visit, allegedly to say she's
sorry, but actually only to hide some evidence agains him in Koistinen's
flat - a clever plan by her boss to get away scott free ...
Koistinen is thrown into the slammer for a year, and seems to be
forgotten by everyone, only Aila writes him a letter - which he refuses to
read.
When Koistinen is released, he starts to work as a dishwasher, and he
tries to resume the friendship with Aila - but now she doesn't want to see
him anymore. Eventually, Mirja comes to the restaurant Koistinen with her
boss and accomplices, and of course they run into each other - and even
though Koistinen pretends to not even notice them, somehow the gangsters
arrange for him to get fired - and later when he faces them, they take him
away and beat him up - and ultimately, Aila is once again the only one who
takes care of him ...
In writing, Lights in the Dusk sounds like the very depressing
version of a very basic film noir plot. However, in the hands of
Aki Kaurismäki, this depressing tale is turned into something resembling
a comedy, it's filled with his trademark borderline-absurd dialogues, long
periods of silence that are never empty, an ironic take on realism and a
healthy disregard for genre conventions (best witnessed in one of the last
scenes, when femme fatale Mirja is seen vacuuming at a meeting of her
boss).
Simply put, it's good entertainment.
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