Tolstoy wrote that happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This does not necessarily apply to men on an individual basis, however, as evinced by the heroes of Mika Kaurismaki's Three Wise Men, an unvarnished, intimate and often amusing drama about masculinity. On one level or another, each of these characters makes the same mistakes, or is about to. Matti is a paranoid expectant father who is crippled by self-doubt. Erkki is an inveterate ladies' man who is battling an unnamed illness and emotionally wounded by his estrangement from his young son. Rauno is a tired, failed actor who has returned to Helsinki from Paris in an attempt to reunite with his own twentysomething son. It is Christmas Eve, a time generally reserved for family, and the trio's inability to connect with the people closest to them is very much on their minds. It doesn't help that they're all nearing middle-age, or that their lives haven't entirely worked out the way they expected. A chance meeting at a hospital brings the three old friends together, and they head out in search of a place to drown their sorrows. They manage to bully the owner of a karaoke bar into letting them in, setting the stage for unexpected breakdowns, emotional revelations and possible redemption.