{"id":6657,"date":"2024-10-23T13:04:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6657"},"modified":"2024-10-23T13:04:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-23T17:04:08","slug":"a-man-called-ove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/23\/a-man-called-ove\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man Called Ove"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Man Called Ove <\/strong>(2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music Box\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic content, some disturbing images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hannes Holm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Hannes Holm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gaute Storaas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Goran Hallberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 7, 2016 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rolf Lassgard, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg, Ida Engvoll, Tobias Almborg, Klas Wiljergard, Chatarina Larsson, Borje Lundberg, Stefan Godicke, Johan Widerberg, Anna-Lena Bergelin, Nelly Jamarani, Zozan Akgun, Viktor Baagoe, Simon Edenroth, Poyan Karimi, Maja Rung, Simeon Da Costa, Jessica Olsson, Fredrik Evers, Ola Heden.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Spoken in Swedish w\/English subtitles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ah, the power of love! An emotion so strong it can bring even the most miserable of bastards back from the brink of the abyss. Meet Ove (Lassgard, After the Wedding), a 59YO widower and protagonist of A Man Called Ove<\/strong>, a Swedish-made dramedy about the redemptive power of neighborly love. Based on the 2012 book by Fredrik Backman, it\u2019s also Sweden\u2019s official submission for this year\u2019s Best Foreign Film Academy Award. I think it\u2019s a shoo-in for at least a nomination.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ove\u2019s only joy in life derives from telling others how stupid they are. Each day, he polices the grounds around the idyllic gated cul-de-sac where he lives while grumbling about his neighbors littering, leaving their bicycles out, not locking the gate behind them and driving where they shouldn\u2019t be. Ove is a very unhappy man who visits his wife\u2019s grave daily. He wants to join her in the hereafter ASAP, sooner being better than later. One day, he puts on his best suit and sets about trying to hang himself with blue nylon rope. That\u2019s when love literally comes crashing into life and changes it for better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0New neighbors move in across the street. They are Parvaneh (Pars), the very pregnant Iranian wife of Patrick (Almborg) and their two young daughters. While trying to back the moving trailer into their driveway, they destroy Ove\u2019s mailbox. Annoyed, he runs outside where his impatience compels him to take the wheel and do it himself. Friendships start in many different ways; this isn\u2019t the craziest first meet I\u2019ve heard about.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At first, he wants nothing to do with them. He wants to be left alone to kill himself. It\u2019s during these attempts that we learn his backstory. Ove grew up in a loveless household, raised by his cold father after the death of his mother. After Dad dies in a work accident, he\u2019s forced out of his home by \u201cwhite shirts\u201d (nameless government bureaucrats) who want the land. He meets his future wife Sonja (Engvoll) while riding the train. They remained steadfast in their union even after facing the greatest tragedy a couple can face.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Fate has different plans for Ove as something always interrupts his suicide attempts. Eventually, Ove starts letting his guard down and warming up to Parvaneh and her family. He starts getting along with his neighbors too. He even helps the wife (Larsson) of his former best friend Rune (Lundberg) when \u201cwhite shirts\u201d try and force her near-comatose husband (a stroke victim) into a government-funded nursing facility. Who knew that beneath his curmudgeonly fa\u00e7ade beat the heart of a mensch? Only everybody that saw As Good as It Gets.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not so strangely, A Man Called Ove<\/strong> is a lot like the 1997 movie starring Jack Nicholson as a miserable bastard made tolerable by the redemptive power of love. But whereas Melvin Udall\u2019s misanthropy was exasperated by his OCD, Ove just misses his wife terribly. She\u2019s the only person who ever showed him love. When she died (six months earlier), he closed himself off completely. Then Parvaneh showed up. In the role of Ove, Lassgard does a tremendous job. I know it\u2019s a long shot, but I\u2019d like to see him nominated for Best Actor. It wouldn\u2019t be the first time the Academy recognized the star of a foreign film. Roberto Benigni took home the Oscar for his performance in the Italian-made Life Is Beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Man Called Ove<\/strong> has its fair share of funny moments, but it\u2019s also quite moving. I won\u2019t divulge details, but you\u2019ll likely shed a tear or two (or many) by the time the end credits roll. Ultimately, it\u2019s a sweet film about love transforming an unhappy, suicidal man into somebody capable of accepting and reciprocating feelings. I know, it sounds sappy, but it\u2019s really not. It never gets maudlin nor does it ever feel insincere. It earns both its laughs and tears. It\u2019s well acted, written and directed by Hannes Holm (Adam & Eva, The Reunion). It\u2019s definitely worth seeking out.\"\"<\/p>\n

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

A Man Called Ove (2016)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music Box\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 116 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic content, some disturbing images, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hannes Holm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Hannes Holm\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gaute Storaas\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Goran Hallberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 7, 2016 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Rolf Lassgard, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg, Ida Engvoll, Tobias Almborg, Klas Wiljergard, Chatarina Larsson, Borje Lundberg, Stefan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dramas","category-foreign"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/A-Man-Called-Ove-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6657"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6813,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6657\/revisions\/6813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}