It's a real mess, a clumsy hodgepodge of disparate tones fighting it out (literally, by the dopey conclusion). But at least two of these stars are for the moment where Spencer Tracy looks the mayor of New York dead in the eye and pleads, "Your Honor, she's gonna have a baby. Isn't there something you can do, Your Honor?"

That guy was awfully goddamn good.

Aki Kaurismäki ('The Man Without a Past,' 'Le Havre') writes and directs this marvelous mixture of desert-dry humor and matter-of-fact tragedy, which is somehow both recognizably stylish and admirably low-key. He tells the story of a Syrian refugee in hiding in Finland, and a frustrated businessman who turns his life upside down, but is in no hurryto explain how they’re connected, and it’s thus more affecting when they finally intersect. Kaurismäki’s signature devices – deadpan compositions, leisurely pacing, and a strange sense of stillness – have rarely been better deployed, and this Criterion edition is gorgeous and engrossing.