Jarkko Lahti is the reason this lands

Jarkko Lahti gives this role a little extra shape without making a big show of it. A couple of tiny timing choices really stuck with me. The small reactions do a lot of the heavy lifting. There is a nice lived-in quality to it, nothing too forced. It is the kind of performance that quietly makes the movie sturdier. Not the whole movie, obviously, but it helps a lot.