Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Robert Gustafsson, Iwar Wiklander, David Wiberg, Mia Skäringer, Jens Hultén, Bianca Cruzeiro, Alan Ford, Sven Lönn, David Shackleton, Georg Nikoloff, Simon Säppenen, Manuel Dubra, Cory Peterson, Kerry Shale, Philip Rosch, Keith Chanter, Patrik Karlson, Johan Rheborg, Donald Högberg, Alfred Svensson, Eiffel Mattsson, Guhn Andersson, Sibylle Bernardin, Ola Björkman, Ralph Carlsson, Richard Cunningham, Gustav Deinoff, Alexandra Gallusz, Pernilla Göst, James Fred Harkins Jr., Gunilla Jansson, Alexander Karlsson, Tzvet Lazar, Koldo Losada, Lateef Lovejoy, Mikael Melle, Sergej Merkusjev, Miglen Mirtchev, Valter Nilsson, Sigitas Rackys, Anders Sanzén, Scott Alexander Young.
Not every film with extraordinarily long titles really ever make for good viewing, some leave you worn out before you managed to read the heading, let alone wonder just why the writer or the makers went with it. However The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared is one that consistently hits the mark and should be seen as a moment of surreal brilliance, something that apes the ownership of life in the same way as Tom Hanks’ Forrest Gump managed to do.
That said, what The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared should be seen as arguably is the anti-Gump, the old man who finds himself not inspiring people do stuff by chance meetings as Forest would do, perhaps righting wrongs and being at the forefront of historical facts but more perhaps being slightly off centre, of letting life take its course and letting everything happen with a bang. Rather than saving Captain Dan or inadvertently helping the Watergate affair, this is a man who, just because he liked to play with explosives, saved the life of General Franco, helped Oppenheimer become the destroyer of worlds, unconsciously caused Comrade Stalin to die in agony and who through allowing Ronald Reagan to wander off and talk to his gardener saw the Berlin Wall come down. For Allan Karlsson, superbly played by Robert Gustafsson, he is a hero only by default but you cannot help but root for him all the way through the film; through every pivotal moment in history, he is there, having a blast.
The anti-Gump, just as loveable, just as well scripted but thankfully without the incessant need to show just how good, how entirely innocent of mind somebody can be to change the world. Too many times a film will rely on showing how a person, no matter how insignificant can change the world for the better, (which is also a true thought as even the seemingly irrelevant or paltry a person’s life can be, they do have that power, just think of a virus ravaging across a continent the next time that you think something small can’t change the planet) and whilst for the feel good factor makes good cinema, it doesn’t always hit the funny bone in the same off-hand casual manner.
Based on Jonas Jonasson’s novel, The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared is a story that is compelling as it is dark, as surreal as it is macabre and amusing. With great performances by Alan Ford, David Wiberg, the superb Mia Skäringer and Iwar Wiklander and the best death by elephant you are every likely to see on screen! The 100-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared is a film that is novel and glorious, an inspiration to all that life should never get dull and a warning to stay out of retirement homes forever.
Well worth seeing.
Ian D. Hall.