Review of The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013) by Gavin P — 25 Aug 2014

The ridiculously-long-winded title 'The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed out Of the Window and Disappeared' thankfully does not represent the film - it's a simple fish-out-of-water comedy, that just happens to be set in Sweden & featuring a centenarian. In reality, the main character - Allan Karlsson - is played by Gustafsson, who's only 49! However, the title does accurately describe the first 15min of the film, but what happens after that needs to be seen to be believed!

One serendipitous incident leads to another and the script (or rather, the screenplay of the novel, which I haven't read) is so well written that as they get more absurd & hilarious, they still somehow seem plausible within the story. It starts off in Sweden (English subtitles, but with Karlsson's spoken inner-monologue in English), but by telling his life's back story, takes in quite a few countries and eras - Spain, America, Russia, WWII - quite 'Forrest Gump'-like in parts, which is a good thing!

The three main supporting actors are great characters and add to the story and it should be warned that some of the humour is a little black, but it all done with so much zest that you can't help but laugh! A good ending, fun soundtrack and excellent pacing make this a foreign/indie film well worth seeing!