A Man Called Ove (2015)

A MAN CALLED OVE  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Hannes Holm
    Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Ida Engvall, Filip Berg
    Tobias Almborg, Fredrik Evers, Simon Edenroth
This is like a Swedish variation on the Bill Murray movie "St. Vincent", about a crotchety old man, the self-appointed enforcer of all the rules and regulations in his apartment complex. Despondent after the death of his wife, he tries repeatedly to commit suicide, and he's such a grumpy bastard, you kind of wish he'd succeed. He doesn't, or as one of his neighbors puts it, he's crap when it comes to dying. Something always gets in the way. He's also more complicated than he first appears, and the movie very gradually lets you in on that. Done wrong, this could be way too sweet. It's a crowd pleaser, complete with a couple of cute kids and a stray cat and eventually a baby, but neither the film nor Rolf Lassgård's grudging performance gives anything away. There's a deadpan stoicism to the humor that's distinctly Scandinavian, and where else but in a Swedish movie would two neighbors engage in a bitter dispute that prevents them from speaking for years, over the relative merits of a Volvo and a SAAB?