Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared) (2013)

Director: Felix Herngren
Writers:  Felix Herngren, Hans Ingemansson, Jonas Jonasson (Novel)
Cast:       Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg
Language: Swedish, English

Dynamite expert Allan Karlsson's life, and the unlikely events following his escape from the old folk's home on his 100th birthday.

It is an adaptation of Jonas Jonasson's best selling novel of the same 'extraordinarily long' name. It is a bit like 'Forrest Gump', but without the cheap sentimentality and shitty one-liners like-"Life is like a box of chocolates. Well, shove it up your arse". The film starts off very small but gradually become bigger and bigger as it reveals that Allan, with his illustrious propensity to blow things up, had met,over the course of his lifetime people like Franco, Truman, Stalin and Reagan. I guess it was common for Swedish people to  be fond of dynamite since Alfred Nobel was also a Swede. The two stories of Allan's lifetime running up to old age and his escapades after fleeing the old age home runs in parallel. The narration was done in English in the print that I saw. The present story line is dotted with bumbling characters and Allan's version of history is also like that. It was great to see Alan Ford reprising a role that is not too different from the one he played in Guy Ritchie's 'Snatch'. Robert Gustafsson is also excellent in the role as Allan and he had to start applying prosthetics at 2 A.M on days when he was acting as the 100 year old Allan.

Overall it is a very good watch but I don't think it can be called a great film. I guess I want some more professionalism from the bad guys and there are just a bit too many coincidences. From the information I have, Harry S.Truman found out about the bomb only after he became the President of US but in the film he is seen drinking with Allan at the site of Manhattan Project. Well, that is just a minor quibble. Film was a huge success getting screened in more than 40 countries and grossing over $50 million, the highest for a Swedish film. There is talk of a possible sequel.

Rating: 3.5/5