A Man Called Ove * * * *

I think I get Swedish humour. It took me a while, but I think I get it.  Unless I was laughing inappropriately, which would not be unusual for me (and also quite Swedish). But now I have to wonder, did a whole generation of filmgoers in English speaking countries  miss out on all the LULZ  in Ingmar Bergmans film?  

Ove says:
"This review was written by an idiot!".

Anyway I found most of A Man Called Ove very funny; fortunately, I think you’re supposed to.
He’s a grumpy old man who lives in a gated community in Sweden. His beloved wife has died and he’d like to die himself but his every suicide attempt is thwarted by one thing or another.

     He has new neighbors who he talks to appallingly, he wanders around the gated community, taking note of any vehicles improperly parked and leaving stern notes to remind them. He scowls at anyone who makes the slightest infraction against the housing community rules.  He thinks everyone should drive a Saab and he mocks anyone who drives anything else.  He is embittered that he is vice president of the community rather than president.  HIs one and only friend in the community usurped him and then had a stroke, leaving the office of President in limbo.

      Every time he attempts suicide he is rudely interrupted by a neighbour, but in his semi asphyxiated state he starts to slip into memories of his past which we share with him, and we learn what made him the man that he is. Meeting his extraordinarily accepting wife, working at the same factory all his life, seeing how she died.

      Obviously things must turn around and they do.  But much of his change has to do with his new neighbours and their sweet children: plus injured animals in need of adoption, and a young gay man recently evicted by his parents with nowhere to stay.  

      Oh yes, it knows which buttons to press alright!

      Grumpy Old Man stories are far from new.  There have been plenty of them. Perhaps too many. But this delightful contribution from Sweden is a welcome change, mainly because the story told in flashback is so good and because his “change” is barely there, it’s just enough.