Review of O'Horten (2007) by Andrew P — 25 Jul 2009

For those of you unfamiliar with Modern Scandinavian Cinema, it's VERY paced and droll. The closest thing to a Scandinavian Film in mainstream American Cinema in recent years was "Napolean Dynamite". It was what Steven Speilberg was going for with "The Terminal" - except he would have needed to give the film a tranquilizer to REALLY get to the energy level of a true Modern Scandinavian Film.

So, along those lines is the film "O' Horten", which I watched on Thursday night. It's the story of a quiet, content man who is forced into retirement after decades of service as a train engineer - after which he encounters a handful of interesting personalities and situations. O' Horten speaks and reacts little, but the cleverness and flow of events are extremely engaging.

I haven't seen too many films this year with which I have been completely satisfied, but "O' Horten" would be amongst the few. It doesn't aim to be anything more than a simple, honest profile of an old man out of his element - and it nails that objective.