Centenarian Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson) escapes from his old-age home just before his birthday celebration. He quickly ends up getting involved in a drug-money adventure, sought by both police and criminals. Will Allan be able to keep the money? More relevantly, does he even want it?
During this adventure, we are shown flashbacks that tell Allan's remarkable life story. It turns out this shambling old Swede was a psychiatric inmate, mine demolition expert, Spanish Civil War hero, rocket scientist and spy. At one point or another, he was a saviour to Franco, Truman and Stalin.
The two narratives are tied together by Allan's character. Allan is an unusually ingenuous man. He is apparently an intelligent man, but a child-like one with no direction, no political views, no sexual life. He lacks a moral sense. He has an obvious enjoyment of explosions and alcohol.
He also has the tendency to lead his life from moment to moment. He seems to be rather oblivious to things around him, whether good or bad, treating death and fame, castration and enrichment, Franco and Stalin, in exactly the same way. He lets fate take him where it may. Que sera sera. He is both the victim and the beneficiary of circumstances and coincidences.
Allan Karlsson is not a dumb Swede. He is not a Forrest Gump spewing platitudes like "life is like a box of chocolates". But like "Forrest Gump", this is a movie that presents a twisted, humorous fly-on-the-wall view of some of the grand events of the 20th century. History as the personal adventure of a strange character.
I enjoyed this movie well enough. It was OK. I did find it funny at times, in a gentle and slapsticky sort of way. But it made me restless. I would not recommend it to a friend.
Some of the film was not well executed, so I had a hard time believing it. The scenes in English in particular seemed off to me. Yes, I realise it was a comedy presenting a tongue-in-cheek view of history, and not meant to be realistic. Perhaps the problem was that the movie makers were not working with the budget necessary to make the grand events seem epic.
Like FG, this movie will polarize audiences, with some loving it, and others not. I have to admit at this point that I was in the camp that did not really get FG. If you loved FG, you might like this movie more than I did.
I suppose the point of the movie (if a comedy needs a point) is that amazing and wonderful things will happen if you just live in the moment and allow fate to take its course and enjoy boozy friendships. Maybe that's true. But I also know from personal experience that sobriety, goal-setting and planning are hugely important.
Am I taking the movie too seriously? I found it difficult to decide whether the story was just a silly comedy or a profound story about fate, politics and history. Was it trying to be both? Was it neither? The movie lost me somewhat when Allan blithely and passively allowed himself to be castrated. Perhaps this was a metaphor for something political or social that has escaped me. The scene just disturbed me. It was hard for me to care about the character after that. Everything that happened to him after that tragedy just seemed so pointless.
The movie is worth about 6.5, and it certainly keeps you guessing at what's going to happen, but I'm going to round that down because of my restlessness.
During this adventure, we are shown flashbacks that tell Allan's remarkable life story. It turns out this shambling old Swede was a psychiatric inmate, mine demolition expert, Spanish Civil War hero, rocket scientist and spy. At one point or another, he was a saviour to Franco, Truman and Stalin.
The two narratives are tied together by Allan's character. Allan is an unusually ingenuous man. He is apparently an intelligent man, but a child-like one with no direction, no political views, no sexual life. He lacks a moral sense. He has an obvious enjoyment of explosions and alcohol.
He also has the tendency to lead his life from moment to moment. He seems to be rather oblivious to things around him, whether good or bad, treating death and fame, castration and enrichment, Franco and Stalin, in exactly the same way. He lets fate take him where it may. Que sera sera. He is both the victim and the beneficiary of circumstances and coincidences.
Allan Karlsson is not a dumb Swede. He is not a Forrest Gump spewing platitudes like "life is like a box of chocolates". But like "Forrest Gump", this is a movie that presents a twisted, humorous fly-on-the-wall view of some of the grand events of the 20th century. History as the personal adventure of a strange character.
I enjoyed this movie well enough. It was OK. I did find it funny at times, in a gentle and slapsticky sort of way. But it made me restless. I would not recommend it to a friend.
Some of the film was not well executed, so I had a hard time believing it. The scenes in English in particular seemed off to me. Yes, I realise it was a comedy presenting a tongue-in-cheek view of history, and not meant to be realistic. Perhaps the problem was that the movie makers were not working with the budget necessary to make the grand events seem epic.
Like FG, this movie will polarize audiences, with some loving it, and others not. I have to admit at this point that I was in the camp that did not really get FG. If you loved FG, you might like this movie more than I did.
I suppose the point of the movie (if a comedy needs a point) is that amazing and wonderful things will happen if you just live in the moment and allow fate to take its course and enjoy boozy friendships. Maybe that's true. But I also know from personal experience that sobriety, goal-setting and planning are hugely important.
Am I taking the movie too seriously? I found it difficult to decide whether the story was just a silly comedy or a profound story about fate, politics and history. Was it trying to be both? Was it neither? The movie lost me somewhat when Allan blithely and passively allowed himself to be castrated. Perhaps this was a metaphor for something political or social that has escaped me. The scene just disturbed me. It was hard for me to care about the character after that. Everything that happened to him after that tragedy just seemed so pointless.
The movie is worth about 6.5, and it certainly keeps you guessing at what's going to happen, but I'm going to round that down because of my restlessness.