Review of Elling (2001) by Katelynn B — 13 Jun 2004

I never realized Norwegians had a sense of humor. But I have a friend who's Norwegian and he has the most amazing, dry wit I've come across. Before that, the only Norwegian I knew was an exchange student in high school. I offended her with my horny American high school boy weirdness. It didn't help that she didn't have a sense of humor that I could sense at the time.

Enough about me and Norwegians.

This is a Norwegian comedy. It's a sweet story about a couple of guys who are released from the mental institution. Roommates in the nuthouse, they are now roommates in an apartment.

There's Elling, a shy, introverted guy and his roomie Kjell, a big lummox of a guy with the sensibilities of a horny adolescent. In the institution, Elling would make up stories about himself, that he was a sailor and had visited a brothel in the Carribbean. Kjell liked hearing those stories.

Out in the real world, Elling is afraid to answer the phone or leave his apartment.

Why have an apartment if you're going to be leaving it all time, he asks. And speaking to another person through a plastic device isn't natural, he tells his case worker.

Eventually, they both come out of their shell. Elling finds he has a knack for poetry and becomes friends with an older man. Kjell strikes up a relationship with a pregnant woman he finds passed out on the stairs to his apartment building.

I can see Hollywood doing a lame remake of this, if they haven't already.