Havre, Le (2011) review

A shoe shiner (André Wilms) - with a sickly wife (Kati Outinen) - takes a liking to an African boy evading the police and trying to reunite with his mother in London. It's slight, to say the least: this is Feel Good Liberalism at its most banal, with law enforcement spending a massive bulk of its time worrying about some kid instead of actual problems in the coastal town - psychology seems irrelevant, too, as the characters exist in Kaurismäki's world of intensely dry (bordering on nonexistent) humor, driven by style instead of plausibility (there's even an impromptu rock-and-roll benefit concert with a dwarf). Of course, it's not exactly intended to be a reflection of "reality," but even as "fantasy" it leaves much to be desired.