The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg. Directed by Felix Herngren. Rated R. Opens Friday.
In its native Sweden, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is a huge hit, the third highest-grossing Swedish movie of all time. But comedy often has trouble translating, and The 100-Year-Old Man arrives in the U.S. as more of a bemusing curiosity than a massive crowd-pleaser.
Popular Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson plays the title character, who indeed escapes out a window of his retirement home, and finds himself caught up in a plot involving a biker gang and a suitcase full of money. Meanwhile, flashbacks fill in his colorful past, including Forrest Gump-like encounters with various historical figures.
The man himself is more Mr. Bean than Forrest Gump, though, bumbling through dangerous situations and escaping obliviously unscathed. Some of the humor takes a surprisingly dark turn, and the wackiness gets a bit strained by the end. Mostly the movie is mild and subdued, provoking more boredom than laughter. Maybe that’s what sells in Sweden.
