Opiniões dos críticos

Shadows in Paradise may run a mere 76 minutes, but one couldn’t mistake brevity for slightness, despite its wisp of a narrative... Kaurismäki punctures the gloom of his muted palette with the occasional splash of primary colour, at once prefiguring the rigorous mise-en-scène that would become his stock in trade and the delicately negotiated possibility of a brighter future with which this beautiful miniature ends.

Shadows In Paradise created a solid prototype for many projects to follow—a short, bleak, yet oddly hopeful and sweet-natured tale that incorporates a soundtrack loaded with vintage American blues, Finnish pop music, and jukebox rock 'n' roll.

The funniest thing about Shadows in Paradise is the title: Kaurismäki’s vision of the Finnish city Helsinki is about as far from paradise as you can get, and you can’t imagine anything in this city that could cause a shadow, either physically or psychically.

The amusing mix of pessimism and possibility [characters] feel at work is mirrored in their relationships, and Kaurismäki allows Nikander and Ilona a final triumph of sorts. Yet even these moments of joy and release are mired in a sardonic, Nordic existentialism. As Kaurismäki would continue to express, escape is achievable, but at a price.

While this is hardly Kaurismäki's best film, it gives the stale conventions of the rom com the dark flipside they need, while downsizing that genre's normally bourgeois sensibilities into a class all its own.

It would be easy to feel cheap pathos for [the director's] characters, except that they never feel sorry for themselves. They bounce back to life as Mr. Kaurismaki keeps sight of the absurd comedy that creeps into odd corners of their stories.