In a Swedish townhouse community, Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is a long-time resident who is recently widowed. His grief only adds to his grouchy attitudes toward people who don't follow his standards of community living. His new neighbours are a young mixed-race family co-lead by Parvaneh (Bahar Pars), a pregnant immigrant from Iran.
Some of the best scenes in the film are those told in flashback as they explain how Ove developed such a negative attitude. The story (screenplay by Hannes Holm based on the book by Fredrik Backman) has a clever way of making us curious about finding the pieces of the past with various hints in the current story; and then satisfying our curiosity once such events are revealed in the parallel flashback story.
Parvaneh's character is a bit of an anomaly. She can sometimes be annoying and take Ove for granted. Yet, the story seems to imply that she is there to "humanize" him. This might have worked better if her character had been more developed. Instead, too much time is spent on other subplots, sideshows and other characters that end up overcrowding the narrative. Some of the subplots also seem to be resolved unusually quickly.
There seem to be messages like "you can't go through life alone" and themes of 'community values' which may be noble but their repetitions become didactic and annoyingly obvious and sentimental. Other themes work better such as the recurrence of administrators-from-hell ("whiteshirts" as Ove calls them), the insensitive bureaucrats that we can all recognize: Satan in multiple human forms.
The conclusion is touching as it makes us have a better understanding about people who appear grouchy. Also, Lassgard gives a fine performance. But overall, the movie was rather mixed. The dramatic scenes are much better than the comedy scenes. - dbamateurcritic.
Some of the best scenes in the film are those told in flashback as they explain how Ove developed such a negative attitude. The story (screenplay by Hannes Holm based on the book by Fredrik Backman) has a clever way of making us curious about finding the pieces of the past with various hints in the current story; and then satisfying our curiosity once such events are revealed in the parallel flashback story.
Parvaneh's character is a bit of an anomaly. She can sometimes be annoying and take Ove for granted. Yet, the story seems to imply that she is there to "humanize" him. This might have worked better if her character had been more developed. Instead, too much time is spent on other subplots, sideshows and other characters that end up overcrowding the narrative. Some of the subplots also seem to be resolved unusually quickly.
There seem to be messages like "you can't go through life alone" and themes of 'community values' which may be noble but their repetitions become didactic and annoyingly obvious and sentimental. Other themes work better such as the recurrence of administrators-from-hell ("whiteshirts" as Ove calls them), the insensitive bureaucrats that we can all recognize: Satan in multiple human forms.
The conclusion is touching as it makes us have a better understanding about people who appear grouchy. Also, Lassgard gives a fine performance. But overall, the movie was rather mixed. The dramatic scenes are much better than the comedy scenes. - dbamateurcritic.