“Henri Boulanger wants to die, for reasons too personal to be explained here. He ends up hiring a contract killer to send him to happier rubber-stamping grounds. While waiting for the killer to do his job, however, Henri makes the mistake of sipping, for the first time in his life, a whisky, and finds the courage to encounter the opposite sex eye-to-eye, also for the first time. Everything would be ready for setting up a family. Unfortunately, the killer's contract cannot be canceled. The film moves from everyday realism through melodrama towards a surprise ending with a cinematic structure swinging between Dreyer and Melville without touching either of them in any way.” So says Kaurismäki of his ironic English-language rumination on the human condition, written especially for Jean-Pierre Léaud.