THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MAKI ***

Winner of Un Certain Regard at last year's Cannes festival "The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki" is a film that lives up to its title; it's a charmer and no mistake. Set in 1962 it's the true story of young boxer Olli Maki who is given the chance to go for the World Featherweight Championship but who lets his romantic inclinations get in the way of his training. In keeping with the period feel, director Juho Kuosmanen shoots the film in glorious monochrome and draws excellent performances from Jarkko Lahti as Olli and Eero Milonoff as his manager Elis and a thoroughly delightful one from Oona Airola as Olli's girlfriend Raija. Like Rocky Bilboa, Olli is a mixture of reticence and romanticism with not a smidgen of Rocky's brouhaha and there is none of the triumphalism of the Rocky pictures on display here. Low-key and often very funny this is a film that surprises in all the right ways.