How do you say “Get off my lawn” in Swedish?
Surely the answer must be buried in the dialogue of “A Man Called Ove,” a crowd-pleaser with a pleasantly dry Scandinavian aftertaste. This movie is Sweden’s official submission in the Oscar sweepstakes for foreign-language film.
Who is Ove? He’s a perpetually frowning 59-year-old widower whose main occupation — now that he’s been laid off from the same factory where his father worked — is telling his neighbors what they are doing wrong around his tidy suburban housing development.
Ove is played by Rolf Lassgaard, who, it can fairly be said, inhabits the role with complete authority. He looks ten years older than his age, and is ready to check out of his colorless existence and join his wife in the hereafter.
Various things interrupt his suicide attempts. Although the neighbors annoy him no end, he’s the only capable handyman around the housing complex. So he jumps into action when something needs fixing.
You probably know the type. Ove is irritated by other people, and especially by the fact that nobody else knows how to do anything. So he might as well do it for them.
The arrival of a new family brings some predictable lessons for Ove about multiculturalism and being needed and all that. The movie won’t surprise you, but it will provide good company.
Director Hannes Holm has adapted the popular novel by Frederik Backman. The whole thing comes across like a Swedish “Gran Torino,” but without the guns and gangs.
I especially liked some of the running jokes. Ove never seems more authentic than when he expresses his utter devotion to the Saab automobile company. He cannot fathom why some fools would drive an Audi or BMW, and the film’s comic high point is a loving montage of all the Saab models that Ove has owned in his life.
Sometimes the foreign-language Academy Award voters opt for edgier stuff, but I wouldn’t be too shocked if “A Man Called Ove” ended up with the Oscar. This grumpy protagonist is hard to resist.
“A Man Called Ove” (3 stars)
A 59-year-old widower (Rolf Lassgaard) intends to end his colorless suburban life, but the incompetence of his neighbors keeps distracting him from suicide. Adapted from the popular novel, this crowd-pleaser has a pleasantly dry Scandinavian aftertaste and some good running gags. In Swedish, with English subtitles.
Rating: PG-13, for subject matter
Showing: SIFF Cinema, Guild 45th
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