{"id":24244,"date":"2016-10-14T16:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T23:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=24244"},"modified":"2016-10-15T08:04:51","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T15:04:51","slug":"a-man-called-ove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/a-man-called-ove\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man Called Ove"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film (2015)<\/p>\n

Written and directed by Hannes Holm
\nBased on the novel of the same name
\nby Fredrik Backman<\/p>\n

Opening in the Boston area October 14, 2016
\nKendall Square Cinema<\/a>, Cambridge<\/p>\n

Music by Gaute Storaas
\nCinematography by G\u00f6ran Hallberg
\nFilm Editing by Fredrik Morheden\t<\/p>\n

With Rolf Lassg\u00e5rd (Ove), Bahar Pars (Parvaneh), Filip Berg (Young Ove), Ida Engvoll (Sonja), Tobias Almborg (Patrick), Klas Wiljergard (Jimmy), Chatarina Larsson (Anita), Borje Lundberg (Rune)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Rolf
Rolf Lassg\u00e5rd as Ove
in “A Man Called Ove”
Courtesy of Music Box Films<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A comedic drama about a depressed elderly widower whose life begins to change when a young family moves in next door.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Ove (Rolf Lassg\u00e5rd) is old-ish and depressed. His beloved wife has died and he’s alone in his housing complex. Or, he’s as alone as he thinks he can be, even though, as he finds out, when a young family moves in next door, that he doesn’t have to be. We watch as he entangles with them, becoming especially friendly with the matron of that family, Parvaneh (Behar Pars). Gradually, the down and depressed Ove, constantly failing at suicide, is taken in by the life around him.<\/p>\n

This charming film has many of the qualities of the sweet sort of it’s all over but not really<\/em> genre into which fit greats like It’s A Wonderful Life <\/em>(1946), Harold and Maude <\/em> (1971) and Groundhog Day<\/em> (1993). In each of these comedies, a dark side shows itself, but not overwhelmingly. They all manage, despite the dire challenges, to come around, each in its own way. <\/p>\n

A Man Called Ove<\/em> has a great gruff central character, played with a bitter edge that has just the slightest bit of wryness to it, by Rolf Lassg\u00e5rd. He’s the perfect grouch and at the same time the perfect softie that Parvaneh, in particular, manages to reach just a bit, initially through her cooking.<\/p>\n

Flashbacks about Ove’s young life, with Filip Berg as the Young Ove, are touching, particularly since most of it is about his courtship and marriage to Sonja (Ida Engvoll). It’s a lovely story about an unlikely romance that starts by happenstance on a train, mildly offbeat in a delightful way, and an enticingly optimistic prequel to the depiction of the desperate older Ove. <\/p>\n

The only thing that’s a bit weird is that it’s difficult to imagine the young Ove actually turning into the older one. There’s something charmingly ironic and uncertain about the young Ove that doesn’t show up in the later characterization. To be sure, that is much of the point of the narrative, but it seems as though a glimmer of that hesitant, slightly odd and goofy, younger man would show up in some way in the older fellow.<\/p>\n

A Man Called Ove<\/em> is Sweden’s official Oscar entry in the Foreign Language Film category for 2017.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Director Hannes Holm has, with this film, done a couple of things new for himself. <\/p>\n

First, he is a seasoned comedic director of television and film, but has not really done dramatic work. Though A Man Called Ove<\/em> is the gentlest of dramas and has comedic elements, it is still not a poke you in the ribs<\/em> comedy. <\/p>\n

Second, Holm almost always writes his own narratives, and, in this case, he adapted his screenplay from a bestselling novel by Fredrick Backman. He surprised himself when he was so taken by the book that he wanted to make a film of it.<\/p>\n

The result is a sweetly touching improvisation on a familiar theme that is never very surprising but gently stimulating nonetheless. Its interleaving of complementary narratives is suggestively appealing while at the same time not as consistent in the depiction of the main character as it might be. That, however, does not draw away significantly from the enjoyment of the whimsically poignant tone at the core of the film or the lightly amusing touches that embellish it.<\/p>\n

My recent interview with Hannes Holm, screenwriter\/director of A Man Called Ove<\/em> can be found here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

– BADMan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film (2015)
\nWritten and directed by
\nHannes Holm
\nBased on the novel of the same name
\nby Fredrik Backman
\nOpening in the Boston area
\nOctober 14, 2016
\nKendall Square Cinema<\/a>, Cambridge<\/strong>
\nA comedic drama about a depressed elderly widower whose life begins to change when a young family moves in next door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-movies","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24244"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24292,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24244\/revisions\/24292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}