You’re asking a lot. You know that, right? This guy is a pedantic curmudgeon. Of the types of folks I want to root for, pedantic curmudgeon isn’t the very lowest on the list … yet ranking above “Neo-Nazi” and “child molester” is hardly a compliment. At least he’s not a Type-A pedantic curmudgeon, right? The kind of guy who is always in somebody’s face about their business? Oops. Spoke too soon. Like I said, movie, you’re asking a lot of me.
Ove (Rolf Lassgård) lives in a gated community, and he should know; he built the gate. He spends his days enforcing the rules of the community, often through verbal abuse: “That bicycle should be in storage!” …“That dog can’t do his business there!” … “That feel has not been properly copped!” … etc. I’m quite sure that I would have told this guy more than once to get Ove himself, but Swedes tend to be more patient than me; perhaps they have a higher tolerance for his vocation.
As if we couldn’t tell, Ove is unhappy. A widower at 59, he is done with life and decides it’s time to join his wife in the afterworld. Leave it to a Swede to cut off heat, phone & electricity before a suicide attempt. “Won’t be needing them where I’m going.” Darn thoughtful if you ask me. And yet, my general thought on said subjects is, “If my corpse owes AT&T a dime, ha! Good luck collecting, jerks.” And again I am reminded not how far I am from Ove, but how far I wish to be. Ove, however, really sucks at suicide. Every time his number is called, he gets pre-empted like a Heidi movie versus the Super Bowl.
Now at first, I felt cheated. I don’t like Ove, so this seems like a problem that solves itself and hey, movie’s over in 15. But, darnit, good movies have a way of investigating, don’t they? For every failed suicide attempt, Ove flashes on a childhood where he lost both parents separately, but too young. And then his house was burned up by the city council and he was forced to live on a train for a few weeks. Ok, rats, now I feel kinda sorry for the guy. But, still, go ahead: You want to die, that’s your choice. Now what’s this then? You saved somebody. Crap. You’re really a softie in a shell of ice? This just won’t do.
And then the neighbors come in. Iranian immigrant Parvaneh (Bahar Pars) rather aggressively inserts herself into neighbor Ove’s life. She doesn’t have much choice –she’s pregnant, has two small children already and her native Swedish husband is an idiot. That scowly neighbor may be a pedantic curmudgeon, but he’s responsible, useful and, most importantly, there. He can babysit and teach me to drive and visit my idiot husband in the hospital. There’s a point at which Ove can refuse; he can 
say, “no” to the preggo Persian and resume the dying, but he doesn’t. And in said moment, I started enjoying A Man Called Ove.
This film doesn’t have any laugh-out-loud humor, but it does have a fair amount of amusement nonetheless, like Ove’s rivalry with a man exactly like himself only Rune drives a Volvo while Ove drives a Saab. The entirety of Ove’s antipathy is based on this one difference in character. So wrong, and so human nature at the same time. There can only be one!
Much like an old-fashioned Volvo, A Man Called Ove started really slow, but picked up and, by the end, proved a positive and reliable experience. I daresay, Hannes Holm, you have adapted adequately. No, I can’t say that’s a world class recommendation, but, hey, you shouldn’t have made it so difficult to get into the film, Holms.
♪Now I’m smoked in car, there’s a hose to the fuse
My delusions are causing me suspicion that I’m of use
In the courtyard today cited forty scofflaws
If they’d leave alone I could get this done
Hey now, hey now
Don’t dream it, Ove
Hey now, hey now
When your world caves in
They claim, they claim
That there’s a wall between us
It only comes from within♫
Rated PG-13, 116 Minutes
Director: Hannes Holm
Writer: Hannes Holm
Genre: Warming up to a character
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Curmudgeons
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Action-eers
♪ Parody Inspired by “Don’t Dream It’s Over”
