Hey gang! If you like your movie entertainment with non stop car chases,lots & lots of explosions (stuff being blown up),big breasted blonde's being stereotyped as the usual airheads,lots of toilet humour, not to mention everybody's favourite "F" word being dropped every line of dialog...then by all means, stay away from 'O'Horten'. That aside, this is a very well written,directed & acted film from Norway that is a gentle fable of getting your groove later in life. Odd Horten is a railway conductor who has been driving the trains in Norway for some forty years now,and is one excursion away from retiring & living the good life (whatever that is). After missing out on an evening of merriment with his former co-workers,due to the fact that he ended up locked out of the flat where the party was to take place. From then on, life becomes a series of scenes (some funny,some not so,some down right surreal),that is supposed to bring Odd out of the forty year stupor that his regimented life was. All of this heads for an ending that will take you by surprise (if you think all Scandanavian films are brooding,moody,introspective meditations on existentialism,guess again). Bent Hamer (who directed the very funny & very tongue in cheek 'Kitchen Stories'from a few years back),writes & directs from his original screenplay of a man who is just learning life is not just all about work,work & more work. Baard Owe (star of many a Norwegian film for both the cinema,as well as Norwegian television)takes on the role of Odd Horten,played as deadpan as one can. The rest of the cast are made up of top notch Norwegian actors who do what they do best. This is a film that will charm the birdies out of the trees. Rated PG-13 by the MPAA for flashes of brief nudity & some mild adult content.
Review of O'Horten
