Le Havre: Press reviews

'The result is both charming and purposeful'

At Cannes: 'the writer-director presents is a tender, warm embrace to those who find themselves rootless. Le Havre offers them and moviegoers an enchanted port in the storm, a cinematic refuge from real life where good intentions are enough.'

'Here is a director who can make '60s formica coffee tables throb with sadness. He's that good.'

'something of the flavor of a children's book, with a warm, quiet glow of reassurance in every frame'

'Aki Kaurismäki's Le Havre is a film you want to hug. It is so adorable – like a loved mutt'

At Cannes: 'Kaurismäki is a master of making deadpan a subtle, expressive performance mode, rather than the arthouse cop-out it too often is. With him, it is a specific discipline and a refined comic mode. What a treat this film is'

'a satisfying and distinctively lovable film'

'Whimsical stoicism is the predominant mood of Finnish maverick Aki Kaurismaki, evidenced in this characteristically modest drama about an unlikely friendship.'

'a homage to French cinema'

'an understated pleasure about a surprisingly resourceful underdog'

'What really saves ‘Le Havre' from being too precious, apart from a wicked thread of black humour, is a sense of solidarity between not just the story's characters, but between them, the filmmaker and us.'

'a warm-hearted salute to both classical French cinema and working-class solidarity.'

At Cannes: 'There's something fresh in this new film, which sees the Finn fully venting his Francophilia for the first time since 1991's La Vie de Bohème'

'this is a fantasy, and it's a perfectly pleasant one at that'

'marginally less stylised and static than most films by its Finnish writer-director'