Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann

A centenarian in an elderly home decides to walk out moments they were about to host party for his 100th birthday.

On the surface, how eventful an event could this be? Well you would be surprised. He goes to the bus station and with the little money he had buys a one way ticket out of town. A stranger asks him to look out for his luggage and though he agreed he decided to steal it and little did he know that it was filled with money which made him a wanted man.

From then on, we follow this centenarian who tries to avoid the elderly home who sent for him, the gang who owned the stolen money as well as the police. His action plan: none! He took it a step at a time and the audience were treated to en ever ending hilarious situations all the way to the end.

Clever plot, well made in a way that actually made it somewhat believable (unlike the Hollywood tendency to go way over the top) this was an unexpected treat.

The Jonas Jonasson novel "The Centenarian Who Climbed Out the Window and Vanished" has been a gigantic success in Sweden, selling more that 250.000 copies. A success that has spread to a lot of other countries as well. I read the book just days before I saw the world premiere on this, as I got the book as a x-mas gift, just two days before the premiere.

Well, to make a long story short, this is an unlikely black comedy in style of Forrest Gump, though darker and way more stupid, and filled with more stupid humans. Other films it's in class with here would be "Fargo", "One night at McCools", "Seven psychopaths" a.s.o. The book functions, and I'm glad to say that the narrative grips made on this as a script works as well. It's a good farce, which will give out many laughs. The two hours goes like it's one.

The 100 years old Allan runs away from his birthday party, and starts a story which only he could be behind. Inwise decisions gives severe results, and looking back on his own life, he's done it before. He's made both tragedy's as well as things leading to happier consequences. They have tried to lock him up more than once, but he's not the easiest to detain.

I enjoyed the film in a quite crowded cinema, which already started laughing at the first scene, and so i t went on. A mixed audience, with surprisingly many pensioners, which have read the book, will probably guarantee the film to be an even bigger success than the novel. At least, that's my guess.

Well, how well is the novel brought to the screen, then? Well, surprisingly well, I would say. The most boring parts of the book is when Allan thinks back, and this is narrated down, so that the story happening present is the main thing. That's a major thing in making this work. There's been some minor changes done to shorten the travel, which unfolds like some kind of a trip or road movie, if you like, just as the book.

The make up is brilliant, and way better than we've seen in Hollywood films (!). Amazing. Robert Gustafsson, playing Allan, is just turning 50, but here he looks perfect both in the twenties, the thirties and as 100 years old. (Well, maybe he looks eighty-something more than 100, but still it's quite passable.)

Some of the CGI isn't exactly brilliant. This I see much better in Norwegian movies. Especially all the explosions are bad, but it doesn't hurt the story, since it's far from believable anyway. The famous persons portrayed are also quite good. The casting is well done, also when it comes to the actors playing the younger Allan. What annoys extremely is the music, which not only is stupid and too "funny", it's also very high in the sound mix. This is the worst bit of the movie. There's also some goofs, like the frozen guy and a tank lid closing itself, while driving away, but still not very big issues.

So very well done, and the best Swedish comedy I've seen in many years. Thanks to a great staff, a quite large budget (63 millions SEK) and wonderful actors. (I'm sure it will play in the money!) The book is well taken care of, and if you enjoyed the movie, you'll find a lot more in the book, now with the clients you've seen here.

What do you get when you combine Forrest Gump style "travel the world, affect history" kind of storyline, add in a heap of dark adult humour and have the protagonist's main character trait to be that he likes to blow stuff up? In a word, this movie.

It's not as great as Forrest Gump. It's clearly imitating the latter, which is not a problem per se, but it causes us to draw comparisons. And while this film is a great deal of fun, the characters are not as nuanced and are there more for the sake of humour than story. It also doesn't have the depth and humanity, at least not to the same amount.

But let's not dwell on the Forrest Gump similarity too much. Because this film does have strength to stand on its own. It's a hilarious film about an old grump that one day simply decides that retirement home doesn't suit him. And thus he jumps out of the window and goes wandering like, as we find out through numerous flashbacks, he has always done when life gets too boring. Along the way he meets all sorts of people, including an elephant in Sweden, and hijinks ensue, like they often do in these kinds of movies.

This movie shines because of its unpredictability and fast pace. You never know what's coming next and the movie keeps up relentless pace, not letting you dwell on the unlikeness of the things happening on screen, which serves the film's purposes very well. The characters and their actors are also very charismatic and fun to follow around. Sure they're a bit stereotypical, aside from the main character, but that doesn't really bother you as you're watching them go because the events they're in are so bizarre.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared has one of the most cumbersome titles in a while, but trust me when I say that the film is anything but. If you're looking for a comedy with a dark sense of humour, this is not a bad choice.

Rarely is a film this engaging, entertaining and unpredictable, in any language! The story, present and past, of Allan Karlsson grabs you from the start. It reminded me of Peter Sellers performance in Being There. In fact, all the performances worked, from the care home workers, dim-witted bikers, bored detective and world leaders.

I had no idea what to expect, only that it was Sweden's third biggest film after the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the Girl that played with fire (also both excellent films, in very different ways).

I really should rate it a 10, as there is nothing to criticise about the film, except to say that it is clearly not The Godfather, nor intended to be. However, for what it is, it is brilliant.

If you like to be surprised and entertained, I cannot really think of anyone that wouldn't enjoy watching this. Find it. Watch it. Enjoy!

This movie is extremely funny. From the moment the old man crawls out of the window until the very end of the movie, it is a stitch. It is fast paced and all the characters are well drawn and fleshed out, even characters that only appear near the end of the movie. I was reminded of Peter Seller's movie "Being There" and, yes, there was a bit of "Forrest Gump" in it. I did not object to the "violent" deaths that some of the characters experienced because they were so over the top that they could not be taken seriously and the audience apparently agreed with me since everyone was howling with laughter. We saw the movie at the Chicago Film Festival and it was one of the few times I have attended a film festival when the entire audience stood up and clapped at the end of the movie.