CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
Film Review: Love is Champion in ‘The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki’
CHICAGO – As a film set in 1962, shot on glorious black & white 16mm stock, “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” has both a feeling that it was made back then, and a timelessness that radiates from that quality. The film is about a boxer, but his heart turns out to be the champion.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 |
This is based on an actual event, the 1962 Featherweight boxing championship that took place in Finland, between the title character Olli Mäki and American Davey Moore. Although the match is the centerpiece, the story is about young love, and how it can be more important than the “biggest thing ever.” The dichotomy between the two factors is the engine of the plot, and creates a nice meditation on life’s priorities – similar to what happens in “Rocky” – and truer to a spirit of what transpires in real life. This is a hidden gem, which won awards at Cannes, Zurich and our own Chicago International Film Festival.
Olli Mäki (Jarkko Lahti) is a Finnish pro boxer in the lightweight division. His manager Elis (Eero Milonoff) arranges an amazing match, for the featherweight championship of the world against American title holder Davey Moore (John Bosco Jr.). At the same time, Olli is fulfilling an invitation to a family wedding, and ends up connecting with his friend Raija (Oona Airola).
Just as he is about to begin training for the biggest boxing match in the history of Finland, Olli feels himself falling in love with Raija, and is completely distracted by this revelation. Elis is beside himself, for he has recruited several sponsors to go along with Olli’s attempt for the championship, and keeps telling his fighter that it will be his ‘happiest day”… but what will be won is yet to be determined.
Raija (Oona Airola) is the Source of ’The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki’
Photo credit: MUBI