A Man Called Ove at Real Art Ways

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FILM

A Man Called Ove

HELD OVER! Winner – Audience Award, Best Actor (Rolf Lassgård) – Guldbagge Awards 2016 Best Actor – Seattle International Film Festival Golden Space Needle Award 2016 Opening Night Selection – Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival 2016 Closing Night Selection – Stony Brook Film Festival 2016 Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel, Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. Enter a boisterous young family next door who accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox while moving in and earning his special brand of ire. Yet from this inauspicious beginning an unlikely friendship forms and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. What emerges is a heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and the gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared. One of Sweden’s biggest locally-produced box office hits ever, director Hannes Holm finds the beating heart of his source material and Swedish star Rolf Lassgård, whose performance won him the Best Actor award at the 2016 Seattle Int’l Film Festival, affectingly embodies the lovable curmudgeon Ove.

"A surprisingly warm and wonderful movie. One of the best of the year!"

– Jackie K. Cooper, Huffington Post

"An unabashed, unexpected delight."

– Stephen Schaefer, Boston Herald

"Lassgård lets us see so deeply under that protective exterior. We feel as if we've walked a mile in Ove's shoes and absorbed his catharsis as our own."

– Odie Henderson, RogerEbert.com

"Incorporating fluid flashbacks and snippets of narration that refreshingly serve to enhance rather than distract, director-writer Hannes Holm maintains a gentle, lyrical flow while coaxing fine performances from a diverse cast."

– Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times

"A Man Called Ove - preaching tolerant togetherness as the key to happiness - earns its sentimentality by striking a delicate balance between barking-mad comedy and syrupy melodrama."

– Nick Schager, Village Voice

"A smooth, methodical black comedy... Hearts will warm, and tears may fall. Lassgard isn't the whole show, but he's most of it, and he's rock steady without being predictable, or falling into easy caricature."

– Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune