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A Man Called Ove Movie Review

A Man Called Ove is a 2015 black comedy film directed by Hannes Holm and starring Rolf Lassgard. It’s an amusing, though predictable flick.

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“One thing is certain though:

Whatever we do in this life,

no one gets out of it alive“

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Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. After a boisterous young family moves in next door, an unlikely friendship forms.

I have seen films about grumpy old men many times before, so this one is nothing new. The edge here is its inclusion of black humor. That made the first half of the film highly entertaining. The highlights were the scenes where he tried to commit suicide, but something would continually interrupt him – neighbors, calls etc.

I loved that first half so much, in fact, that the rest of the film came as quite a disappointment. I am of course talking about the movie’s dramatic elements, which are frankly tiresome by now. The flashback scenes where he recalls his time spent with his wife were the most uninteresting sequences in the film.

Those reminded me of the opening scene from Pixar’s ‘Up’, but are done in a much weaker fashion than that spectacular, classic scene. All such moments grinded this film to a halt, no matter how necessary for the narrative they were.

Rolf Lassgard plays the protagonist, and he’s terrific. Every performance is good here, but he steals the show with such a confident, powerful work in such a complex role. The character is believable throughout. I also really liked the woman that he befriends as well as that part where he helps out a gay youth from the streets. Such sweet moments made the film very endearing.

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A Man Called Ove is weakly paced and structured, though mostly engaging. The dialogue is great, the characterization is good and the emotion is definitely felt. However, the direction could have been better, the flashbacks are not well incorporated at all and the second half is cliched. It’s a solid, but far from deserved Oscar nominee.

A Man Called Ove features a terrific first half with a great black comedy approach, some very sweet scenes and a terrific performance from Rolf Lassgard in the main role, but the second half is undone by a more conventional approach with overly used flashback scenes.

My Rating – 3.5

You can get A Man Called Ove on Amazon.