The first screen adaptation of Arto Paasilinna's picaresque novel (followed by Christopher Lambert in the somewhat slipshod Le lièvre de Vatanen in 2006), The Year of the Hare follows Kaarlo Vatanen, who quits his job in deodorant advertising to live a quiet life in the wilds of Finland with a hare that he adopts after it's hit by his colleague's car. However the quiet life proves difficult to find, even in the middle of nowhere, being disturbed in turn by the police, aggressive landowners, backwoods oddballs and irritating tourists who want to meet a real hermit.
The patient pacing of the film allows the novel's blend of wry humour and philosophical contemplation to come through intact, and thereby makes a persuasive case for following the sympathetic protagonist's example to likewise give up on the rat race altogether.
7/10