Review by John Delia
The strange little film The 100-year-old man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared takes its audience on a wild and wacky journey. It’s a lot of fun in the vein of a Forrest Gump, but this guy has more of a trek with danger all around. The film has very good acting and is based a script taken from a work of fiction by Jonas Jonassan. The book was a 2010 best seller in Sweden that went on to sell over 3 million copies worldwide. Nicely filmed and orchestrated by director and screenwriter Felix Herngren, the movie is a hoot.
It’s the day of his hundredth birthday and Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson) has his own plan for celebrating it. The attendants at the nursing home where he lives have planned a party, called the local press to be present and lit a cake covered with 100 candles. When they get to his room however, Allan has left the premises through his bedroom window. It’s a very quirky beginning to an amazing adventure that will find Allan caught up in a daring dilemma on the run from the mob.
The film involves a very funny chase that gets the 100 year old man into some very sticky situations. But that’s not half the story. Director and screenwriter Felix Herngren keeps his movie moving at a fast pace integrating new characters and showing the mayhem being left behind as a result of misguided good deeds. To give validity and interest to his main character Herngren flashes back to Karlsson’s early years. There we find he was influential during WWII with heads of state, Oppenheimer while making the Atomic Bomb, meetings with Khrushchev and Stalin, assisting CIA and many other memorable events.
Nicely crafted Herngren works his cast into each situation and gets very good performances from the central roles. Well known Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson does an incredible job in his first big screen appearance. As the 100-year-old he makes Allan Karlsson oblivious of wrong doing as he continues on his trek of eluding gangsters and avoiding the mayhem. He’s perfect for the role and the make-up department turns the actor into a realistic old timer. He’s a lot of fun to watch as he prods through the film Forrest Gump style.
One of his main support characters Iwar Wiklander plays Julius, a train station operator who Karlsson comes upon following his “getaway†from the nursing home. His character has led a boring life and needs a good adventure and when he finds out that Julius has fallen prey to a gang, he sets out to help him. Wiklander creates this energetic aging station master filled with ideas on how to get out of trouble, yet seems to get Karlsson deeper in misfortune. It’s like the expression “the blind leading the blind,†only they can see.
Offsetting the two unable souls is Benny, played by David Wiberg. He’s an over educated man who picks-up Karlsson and Julius looking for a ride. Wiberg’s the glue that holds the three together as they ramble across the country trying to make sense of what is going on while avoiding certain death. His Benny has a lot of idiosyncrasies that have been mounting each time he changes his college curriculum. When he meets up with Gunilla (Mia Skäringer) the two love birds try to bring Karlsson into the reality that he’s in danger.
The film is not without flaws most of which come with an overbearing script filled with flashbacks that distract. He spends too much time on the flashbacks and the chase becomes less urgent with the outcome a mere happenstance. What also doesn’t help the film is the title that includes way too many words. It must have been a bear to promote and put up on a marquee at any movie theater foreign or domestic.
The 100-year-old man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has been rated R for language and some violence. The language gets quite abusive and the violence is actually quite strong at times. The film is presented in Swedish, German, English, Spanish, French, and Russian with English subtitles. The movie won Audience Awards at several film festivals.
FINAL ANALYSIS: An ambitious project that stimulates a lot of laughter. (B-)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, David Shackleton and Jens Hulten
Directed by: Felix Herngren
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
MPAA Rating: R for language and some violence
Running Time: 1 hr. 54 min
Release Date: May 22, 2015
Distributed by: Music Box Films