REVIEWS

"Buster Keaton isn't dead, he's alive and well in Finland ... If the name Aki Kaurismäki doesn't mean anything to you, it should, and Le Havre may be the film to make it happen."
- Kenneth Turan, The Los Angeles Times

"Grade: A! A perfect, deadpan, impishly optimistic fairy tale."
- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

"A stylized and sentimental fairy tale about the way the world might be ... Aki Kaurismäki has become a major inheritor of the comic-humanist tradition of Charlie Chaplin, Jean Renoir and Jacques Tati."
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"Four stars! There is nothing cynical or cheap about it, it tells a good story with clear eyes and a level gaze, and it just plain makes you feel good."
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

"A gem! I left the theater thinking yes, there is a God who occasionally performs miracles."
- Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, The Westchester Guardian

"Subversively funny."
- Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

"Three and-a-half stars! A utopian dream of a comedy."
- Michael Phillips, The Chicago Tribune

"Exquisite! One of the most enjoyable pictures of the year."
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

"Recommended! One of Aki Kaurismäki's warmest, most engaging films."
- Mark Jenkins, NPR

"Pure pleasure!"
- Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter

"Pulls off the difficult trick of being wickedly ironic and yet still making you feel good about life."
- John Powers, Vogue

"Ingenious!"
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"Four stars! One of the finest films of the year."
- Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post

"A heartfelt hat tip to the power of community and cinema."
- David Fear, Time Out NY

"Lovely! I enjoyed it immensely, and I suspect you will, too."
- John DeWitte, Chicago Movie Examiner

"Kaurismäki has joined the ranks of the master auteurs."
- Dennis Lim, The Los Angeles Times

"A near flawless example of how to tell a story on film."
- John Seal, Berkeleyside

"Heartwarming and irreverent ... Le Havre maintains a fresh balance that never falters."
- Eric Kohn, indieWIRE

"Three and-a-half stars! A pleasure indeed."
- Moira Macdonald, The Seattle Times

"Wonderful! It's the sort of blissful dream state you dread waking up from."
- Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com

"Warm-hearted and uplifting."
- V.A. Musetto, Thew New York Post

"The film feels both modern and timeless, which is exactly how every movie should feel and so few do."
- Steve Prokopy, Gapers Block

"Recommended! An uncommonly gentle fairy tale."
- Ray Pride, Newcity Film

"Three and-a-half stars! The movie's a sparkler."
- Anita Katz, The San Francisco Examiner

"A humanistic fairy tale resonating with goodwill."
- Damon Smith, Filmmaker Magazine

"A magical film! Le Havre has it all — humor, sadness, health and illness, friendship and community, and doing the right thing in a world that is going a little mad."
- Fred Brussaut, Spirituality and Practice

"Four stars! One of the most moving films of 2011."
- John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press

"An unapologetic crowdpleaser and an absolute revelation."
- Kristy Puchko, The Film Stage

"Witty, filled with priceless ironies, funny and heart-warming. As soon as it ends, you want to see it again."
- Milos Stehlik, WBEZ

"One of the most deeply satisfying films of the year."
- Ruben Rosario, The Miami Sun Post Weekly

"Four stars! A small bit of movie magic."
- Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic

"A radiant fable for our times."
- Diane Sippl, Kino Caviar

"Three and-a-half stars! Its view is that of a child who hasn't yet been broken to accept a world of limited possibilities, which is another way of saying that its view is revolutionary."
- Phil Coldiron, Slant Magazine

"We wouldn't know what to say to someone who claimed to love movies but who did not enjoy Le Havre."
- Steven Pate, Chicagoist

"Grade: A-! Would that the world was a bit more like this."
- Brandi Sperry, The MacGuffin

"Few filmmakers practice minimalism as effectively as Aki Kaurismäki."
- Peter Keough, The Boston Phoenix

"Remarkable! This is a delightful, and delightfully memorable, film."
- Michael Lee, Film-Forward

"A funny, moving and optimistic fairy tale of underdog solidarity."
- Nathan Duke, Douglaston Patch

"Four stars! Marvelously adaptive, capable of presenting a range of experience and inciting every emotion."
- Mick LeSalle, The San Francisco Chronicle

"4.5 out of 5! The most warm-hearted film I can recall in recent years."
- Jake Cole, Spectrum Culture

"Tender and hopeful." - Roger Ebert

"A brilliantly knowing political fairy tale ... one of my favorite movies of the year."
- Charles Mudede, The Stranger

"Charming! If you’re tired of cynicism and pretentiousness and feel like a cinematic breath of fresh air, I encourage you to see it."
- Leonard Maltin, Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy

"A warmhearted comedy of underdog working-class solidarity."
- J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

"Three and-a-half stars! A very good movie."
- Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe

"Nobody uses deadpan as consistently or well as Kaurismäki."
- James van Maanen, TrustMovies

"Enormously enjoyable and gorgeous to watch."
- Ian Buckwalter, DCist

"Definitely recommended! One of the most heartfelt, unabashedly old-fashioned films to carry major festival laurels this year."
- Joe Bendel, The Epoch Times

"Touching, arresting and wry."
- Pamela Alexander-Beutler, SF Movie Examiner

"A straight-from-the-heart comedy that is as aesthetically pleasing as it is hilarious."
- David Means, The Daily Californian

"A crowd-pleaser! It's a film that speaks to the universal."
- Kelly Jane Torrance, The Washington Examiner

"9 out of 10! Takes the most generous attitude possible toward human nature ... A wry mini-treatise on the necessity of being kind and having guts."
- Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline

"Perfection in cinema ... If you see only one film this month, make it Le Havre."
- Jennifer Marin, Alliance of Women Film Journalists

"Funny and moving! With his trademark deadpan humor intact, Kaurismaki creates a world of solidarity, optimism and love."
- Robin Holland, Talking Pictures

"A modern-day European fairy tale ... it'll send you out of the cinema hopeful and happy."
- Kong Rithdee, Cinema Scope Online

"A continual pleasure!"
- Leslie Felperin, Variety

"Five stars! Everyone should see this film."
- Tom Ellis, Filmbalaya.com

"A rare magical experience beyond what words can express ... a touching drama of human good will and salvation."
- Dennis Toumarkine, Film Journal International

"Easily the most humanist, generous and hopeful movie in recent memory."
- Martin Tsai, Critic's Notebook

"Kaurismäki's alchemical mix of wit, irony and melodrama has seldom been more affecting."
- John Anderson, Newsday

"The last movie, which amazed me, and which I admired, was Aki [Kaurismäki]'s Le Havre. I loved this movie."
- Béla Tarr in an interview in The Hollywood Reporter

"One of his best! Kaurismäki makes a savvy play for hearts and minds and, in the finest humanist tradition, finds a way to smile in spite of it all."
- Tom Hall, Hammer to Nail

"A marvel of intelligence, formal inspiration and eccentric humour."
- Domenico La Porta, Cineuropa

"Three and-a-half stars! A touching film that refuses to make hay of its beguiling grace."
- Lisa Kennedy, The Denver Post

"A welcome blast of deadpan humor."
- Ed Grant, Media Funhouse

"What a treat this film is!"
- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

"Lovely! A delightfully warmhearted film."
- Dennis Dermody, Paper Magazine

"A marvelously unusual, charmingly offbeat tale from a master of the form."
- Mark Rifkin, This Week in New York

"What would happen if this Finnish director decided to make a film in France? Those who see Kaurismaki’s Le Havre will find out — and you’d do well to be among them."
- Robert Denerstein, Movie Habit

"Glorious ... Kaurismäki uses cinema to envision a world in which the love of humanity overcomes borders."
- Michael Sicinski, Cargo

"Be prepared for a handful of frogs getting caught in your throat as this mini masterpiece gently rests itself onto your list of underrated films in the coming year."
- Jesse Hawthorne, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"A conspiracy of light, mood and character, rooted in a story of community and common decency."
- Steve Dollar, The Wall Street Journal

"A minimalist delight!"
- Gary Kramer, FrontiersLA

"The type of story that shows the possibility and hope in the prevailing nature of kindness ... I can’t tell you how much I love films that bring me in like this."
- Erik Otis, Sound Colour Vibration

"Powerful! In considering Aki Kaurismäki the most gifted filmmaker in the world today, I offer my strongest recommendations for Le Havre."
- Louis Proyect, The Unrepentant Marxist

"Imbued with a lovely humanism."
- Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

"Sees Kaurismäki in magnificent form."
- Jonathan Romney, Screen International