O’HORTEN

Drama
In Norwegian with English subtitles

F.Y.I.
The Holmenkollen ski jump located just outside Oslo, Norway was opened in 1892. It was host to the 1952 Winter Olympic ski jump competition and has served as the venue for many world championships, the next one scheduled for 2011.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Bård Owe: 67-year-old Odd Horten, a railroad engineer
Ghita Nørby: Svea Thøgersen, owner of a small B&B in Bergen
Bjørn Floberg: Flo, one of Odd’s old acquaintances
Henny Moan: a tobacconist
Espen Skjønberg: Trygve Sissener, one of Odd’s new acquaintances
Kai Remlov: his brother Steiner

REVIEW
A low key, small budget film with probably the thinnest plot line ever: seemingly random events in the life of one man over a period of a couple of days to illustrate the fact that life in retirement can be very unstructured.

With the deadpan delivery by the principal character and the unusual situations he finds himself in, it is mildly amusing. The result are smiles rather than belly-laughs.

The main criticism I have is the writing: more than once a quick cut from the scene before its climax leaves us with the feeling “What happened? What was that all about?”. These loose ends are oddly baffling; why include them if they do not advance the story?

However that is not all that surprising: any movie produced, directed and written by the same person generally has major flaws with it. Lacking independent judgment of the film elements almost guarantees this will happen.

Not bad enough to walk out of, I was relieved when the end credits appeared.

CLASSIFICATION
for brief nudity.