Film ReviewsA Man called Ove
Nov 4, 2016 Anchorage Press
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A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove, original title) is the feature-length film based on the Swedish novel by the same title and written by Fredrik Backman. The movie is directed by Hannes Holm, the fifty-something year old director is also from Sweden and has had a prolific career in film and television that dates back to the early 1990s. A Man Called Ove is not singular or unique, but it's a story well-told. Through A Man Called Ove, Holm sets a cinematic pendulum in motion that is balanced and nicely-paced swinging from one extreme to the other, from laugh-out-loud moments to deep sadness.
Rolf Lassgård plays Ove, a widower hanging to life by a thread. He's in the kind of state in which one needs a reason to get up in the mornings or else life is meaningless. Luckily for Ove and viewers, he's a type "A" personality, thus motivated by the smallest kernel of disorder to abort his death attempts. Six months after the death of his wife, attrition comes knocking, thus displacing Ove even further. Ove is not only taciturn; his emotions are hermetically sealed-making him into the subdivision's resident curmudgeon. He spends his days in an orderly manner, starting with his morning rounds through which he secures the premises by checking all entry points, straightening signs, tightening loose ends and chastising transgressions small and large.
During one of his suicide attempts Ove is interrupted by the cacophony of new neighbors moving in. Parvaneh (Bahar Pars) is an Iranian immigrant-she, her Swedish spouse and two children breathe life into a stagnant subdivision and inadvertently disrupt Ove's existence for the better.
What makes A Man Called Ove compelling is its delivery and outstanding acting. Lassgård is a talented and skilled actor with a long career in theater, television and film. His breadth of experience with live theater-especially Shakespeare-gives him the ability to deliver a wide range of emotion. Lassgård takes the viewers on an internal journey and then back out again; he pivots expertly from making the viewers laugh to making them feel a drop in the pit of their stomach at the realization of the love that Ove has lost, and if that weren't all, Ove then injects hope into the scenario. Lassgård delivers a character that is difficult to hate even if one is annoyed with him. With every suicide attempt and still moments, the director reveals the back story of Ove, his childhood, family life and the love of his life. The more viewers know, the more they grow to feel sympathy and even love for Ove.
There is something familiar about A Man Called Ove-and it's not just the plot and predictable interactions, it's something deeper that reaches into past Swedish film making-more directly into the film making of Ingmar Bergman. This is not to say that Holm is Bergman, or A Man Called Ove is The Seventh Seal, but there's something they share; an almost perfect balance between joy, humor and grief. Ingmar Bergman was a funny man who made deeply emotionally, complex films; A Man Called Ove shares a similar emotional arc. At its core, A Man Called Ove is a study of grief and grieving through a lens that avoids a downward spiral into a pity fest because it is able to call on the joyous and funny moments that happen all around, all the time and are found in the simple details of living.
A Man Called Ove shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, November 7 at 8 p.m.
Rolf Lassgård plays Ove, a widower hanging to life by a thread. He's in the kind of state in which one needs a reason to get up in the mornings or else life is meaningless. Luckily for Ove and viewers, he's a type "A" personality, thus motivated by the smallest kernel of disorder to abort his death attempts. Six months after the death of his wife, attrition comes knocking, thus displacing Ove even further. Ove is not only taciturn; his emotions are hermetically sealed-making him into the subdivision's resident curmudgeon. He spends his days in an orderly manner, starting with his morning rounds through which he secures the premises by checking all entry points, straightening signs, tightening loose ends and chastising transgressions small and large.
During one of his suicide attempts Ove is interrupted by the cacophony of new neighbors moving in. Parvaneh (Bahar Pars) is an Iranian immigrant-she, her Swedish spouse and two children breathe life into a stagnant subdivision and inadvertently disrupt Ove's existence for the better.
What makes A Man Called Ove compelling is its delivery and outstanding acting. Lassgård is a talented and skilled actor with a long career in theater, television and film. His breadth of experience with live theater-especially Shakespeare-gives him the ability to deliver a wide range of emotion. Lassgård takes the viewers on an internal journey and then back out again; he pivots expertly from making the viewers laugh to making them feel a drop in the pit of their stomach at the realization of the love that Ove has lost, and if that weren't all, Ove then injects hope into the scenario. Lassgård delivers a character that is difficult to hate even if one is annoyed with him. With every suicide attempt and still moments, the director reveals the back story of Ove, his childhood, family life and the love of his life. The more viewers know, the more they grow to feel sympathy and even love for Ove.
There is something familiar about A Man Called Ove-and it's not just the plot and predictable interactions, it's something deeper that reaches into past Swedish film making-more directly into the film making of Ingmar Bergman. This is not to say that Holm is Bergman, or A Man Called Ove is The Seventh Seal, but there's something they share; an almost perfect balance between joy, humor and grief. Ingmar Bergman was a funny man who made deeply emotionally, complex films; A Man Called Ove shares a similar emotional arc. At its core, A Man Called Ove is a study of grief and grieving through a lens that avoids a downward spiral into a pity fest because it is able to call on the joyous and funny moments that happen all around, all the time and are found in the simple details of living.
A Man Called Ove shows at Bear Tooth on Monday, November 7 at 8 p.m.