A Man Called Ove

A life retrospective of – only at a first glance – an evil and grouchy old man, A Man Called Ove both amuses with its black humor and moves the viewer, and has an intriguing narrative with characters you’re interested in getting to know. Old and young Ove are played so well that you do not believe that the actors are not playing themselves, even while being accurate to the point of caricature in portraying the main character in such a way that the whole film can revolve around his nature. (30/11/2016)

With The Hundred-Year Old Man, the Swedes created a new type of comedies that mixes absurd situations with the reality of everyday lives, which is something that Scandinavian cinematography quite agrees with. A Man Called Ove has its very nice and human story speak for it, which is once sad, only to make us laugh a moment later. On top of that, the setting is very interesting and original and it gives rise to a whole series of interesting situations which may seem absurd, but which are evidently based on the life experience of every Swedish person. For instance, the Volvo vs. Saab rivalry is absolutely genius. I was laughing so hard whenever I saw the cars in the film. I felt so good watching the movie that five stars are not enough for a movie like this. (03/02/2017)

Scandinavian mainstream films have a grateful Czech audience, because they speak their language, are not afraid of black humor, do not indulge in grand gestures, and lately, even with their squinting plots, give the impression that we are finally watching a domestically produced film. In other words, I have the impression that behind the success of Scandinavian cinema in our own backyards is the activation of the viewer's self-deception, where the usual altruism of "decent for a Czech film" is replaced with the personal pride of "I went to a good Nordic film", while still giving the person in question the stamp of a film explorer and connoisseur. Except that the target group is the same for both variants. Sure, compared to the slimy little dog-eat-dog opinion pond of the Czech mainstream, the cinematic North is more progressive in its opinions yet unafraid to dabble in "controversial" topics such as immigration, homosexuality, and in short the entire transformation of the world through the eyes of an old conservative pragmatist, but in any case it still accurately processes to death the mining of empathy for the character based purely on respect for the aged. Otherwise, there's no other reason to connect get on the same wavelength as the protagonist because he's a truly insufferable bastard who doesn't have a single character trait capable of engaging you. That's why the empathy is built up based on the incredibly parareal flashbacks about his love for his wife, who obviously must be suffering from something like hypertrophied altruism, because otherwise it really doesn't make sense how a likable, educated young woman can throw herself away on an autistic moron who permanently makes faces like Albert Fish. The emotion is then squeezed out of the viewer by the contrast of the old man's present-day loneliness compared to those flashbacks, which are so overwrought that, for example, the hero's wife is laughing in every situation, it’s a wonder she didn’t bite me through the screen. She reads and laughs, she goes on the bus and laughs, she eats soup and laughs. Ugh. The thrown-together handling of the entire story, which appeals to strong neighborhood cohesion in satellite suburban homes, also drives me to the brink of suicide and shows all too clearly who this adventure is intended for. (15/03/2017)

I've been loving movies about old age and taking stock lately, and this one is just that. It’s a story of a grumpy grandpa, his life, and his love life. Maybe he's a jerk, but perhaps he has his reasons. Life is beautiful and it's only us who make it ugly. The film has a nice human message and it's not boring. (19/07/2017)

There is a certain similarity with the equally successful Finnish film The Grump, but A Man Called Ove is probably even more memorable. The cantankerous, perpetually enraged old man Ove is certainly no prize for the neighbors; in fact, he really got on my nerves at first too. But as I got to know him during his futile attempts to take his own life, I suddenly found myself growing suspiciously attached to him. Maybe because his heart was so big. It is a beautiful story full of sharp humor and at the same time very touching. And strangely enough, these two opposing ingredients do not clash but are in complete symbiosis. As a result, it is an extremely human film that caresses the soul and leaves behind a wistful memory. (13/04/2020)