For this month’s next review for Genre Grandeur – Non-Winning Oscar Best Picture Nominees, here’s a review of A Man Called Ove (2015) by Ryan of Ten Stars or Less.
Next month’s genre has been chosen by me and since I’ll be debuting season 3 of my Podcast – MovieRob Minute on July 4th where we will look at Die Hard (1988) one minute at a time, I decided to link it to this months GG, so we will be reviewing our favorite Die Hard Doppelganger Movie.
Thanks again to Matthew Simpson of Awesome Friday for choosing this month’s genre.
Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Jun by sending them to DieHardDoppelganger@movierob.net
Try to think out of the box!
Let’s see what Ryan thought of this movie:
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Movie Rob recently released the May theme for Grand Grandeur, which were Best Picture nominations that didn’t win. He told us to be creative and think out of the box, which I did precisely. Instead of picking a Best Picture nominated movie for my pick, I dug deep into the International Best Picture nominees and grabbed one of Sweden’s nominees, A Man Called Ove / En man son heter Ove from 2015. I was excited to watch this movie for two reasons. The first was to see how much I could understand without reading subtitles for two hours. The second reason was to further educate myself about Sweden films. The Scandinavian culture has fascinated me since I was a kid, and thanks to the internet, there are now endless opportunities to learn about a country halfway around the world. Anyways, you came here for a movie review, so here goes. It’s been a little over a week since I finished this movie, and to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel about it. Don’t get me wrong; this was a phenomenal movie with a great story and unforgettable performances. I’m just so conflicted on how I should rate it. The final score will be high; just how high is the conflict tearing me up on the inside. The story felt natural like these characters were people you know or heard about in your community. There was no fantasy here, and even though it is just a fictional story, it was real life. People cope with the loss of a loved one in their own unique way. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) has experienced so much loss. He is just a bitter old man who is as jaded as a black spade. 
Ove is one of the grumpiest old men you could ever meet. He’s super protective of his neighborhood and a stickler for the rules. He’s brash and not afraid to confront anyone who disobeys his rules. At this stage of his life, he’s a widower and visits his wife’s grave every day. Little does anyone know, he’s promised to join his wife soon, and whenever the moment comes for him to finally follow through with his goal, something pops up, and his plan ends in disarray. Every time he is close to the edge, we experience flashbacks to important moments in his life. We witness the loss of his father, the start of his career at the railroad company, his homelessness thanks to some ruthless land developers, the moment he met his wife on a train, and the vacation wreck that destroyed his chance at a family. On the outside, Ove is someone you just hate because you don’t know him and don’t think there’s a kind bone in his body. Behind the mean persona he projects, he’s a generous and kind-hearted man who has just suffered so hard for so long that he is tired of suffering alone. A family who moved in across the street changed his life. They continue to chip away at his cold heart, hoping that they can restore it to its former glory. Through trial and error, Ove finds himself slowly enjoying life again and embracing the community that was always there for him, despite his overbearing personality. The mean old man who could care less about another soul even adopts the neighborhood stray cat who needs some care after being injured. To watch Ove go from an old bugger to someone everyone wanted to be around was really enjoyable. There were so many moments I wondered how this story would play out, whether he was actually going to finally hang himself or live out his days surrounded by new friends and his furry best friend. So many moments, whether through flashback or present-day, had me on the verge of tears. I never cried, but I can say a handful of significant moments really strike a chord and could cause a few tears to form. 
I barely remembered the 2017 Oscars and will never in my life agree with Moonlight as the year’s Best Picture winner. The Salesman (Iran) took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and even though I never watched it, I sure hope A Man Called Ove gave that film a run for its money. Some may argue about my biased opinion about the movie because it is Swedish, but that’s not the only reason I loved this film. I’m telling people about this film and hope more get to find it and watch it. A Man Called Ove won’t disappoint you because, as I mentioned before, it is an excellent portrayal of life, although it’s fictional. Everyone gets angry, and everyone suffers a loss or two in their lifetime; it’s just inevitable. The moments after we get mad or suffer matter the most. People can either choose to move on or stay stuck in the moment. Ove clung to the past for so long that he missed the opportunity to enjoy life as it continued to unfold. It took a true miracle for the people around him to wait out his grudges and continue to press on because, in the end, most people are generous and want others to be happy. Ove was happy with life for the longest time, and then it was all taken away from him. Watching him turn the page and find new meaning in life was worth every minute. 9/10
MovieRob 