One Last Deal

One Last Deal follows Heikki Nousiainen’s Olavi, an aging art dealer, as he becomes convinced that a painting up for auction is actually the work of a major Russian artist, with the movie detailing Olavi’s ongoing efforts at proving the piece’s provenance as well his attempts at reconciling with his estranged daughter and grandson. It’s a fairly familiar premise that’s employed to perfectly watchable effect by filmmaker Klaus Härö, as the picture, which ultimately feels long even at 95 minutes, benefiting substantially from Nousiainen’s consistently magnetic turn as the well-intentioned yet perpetually oblivious central character – with the chemistry between Nousiainen and Amos Brotherus, cast as Otto’s grandson, certainly infusing certain sequences with a jolt of crowdpleasing energy. The agreeable atmosphere is heightened by the inherently compelling narrative and the smattering of surprisingly engrossing sequences, with, in terms of the latter, a scene involving a tense auction certainly standing as a highlight within the entire proceedings. It’s disappointing to note, then, that One Last Deal is unable to sustain the entertaining vibe through to its conclusion, as the movie’s second half suffers from a hit-and-miss quality that’s compounded by a continuing inclusion of needless elements (ie this doesn’t really feel like a film that requires a human villain). The script’s progressively erratic bent thwarts Härö’s climactic attempts at wringing tears from the viewer, with the end result is a decent drama that could’ve used a little more tightening at the editing stage.

**1/2 out of ****