The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Overview

Forget about Ingmar Bergman, Stellan Skarsgard and Noomi Rapace. The cinema of Sweden has a brand new face — and by new, we mean very, very old. Adapted from the bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is the single most profitable film in the history of Swedish cinema. What drove audiences in such numbers to such a singularly unfunny comedy we'll chalk up to cultural misunderstanding

The film, to its credit, delivers exactly what it promises to. On the day of his centennial, geriatric explosives expert Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson) decides he's had enough of life in his retirement home and promptly shimmies through the curtains for a stroll. While at the bus station purchasing a one-way ticket to wherever, Karlsson accidentally comes into the possession of a suitcase full of drug-money — the first in a series of hi-larious coincidences and knee-slapping misunderstandings that follow the senior citizen wherever he seems to go.

Indeed, the addlebrained pensioner is no stranger to misadventure. As flashbacks soon reveal, Karlsson apparently met, and influenced, most of the major figures of the 20th century, including Franco, Stalin and both Eisenhower and Reagan. He was also the lynchpin in the Manhattan Project, served as a spy for both sides during the Cold War, and spent some time in a Siberian gulag for his troubles.

The film's most obvious compatriot would be something like Forrest Gump, but frankly, the comparison doesn't flatter. Gump wasn't exactly the sharpest hammer in the cutlery draw, but he had a certain childlike innocence that helped endear him to an audience. Karlsson, on the other hand, is just plain dumb. As such, it's difficult to care about either his past or his present, the latter of which sees him on the run from some skinhead bikers, intent on getting their money back in whatever way they can.

The comedy is broadly slapstick, but with an undertone of callous black humour. Putting aside the fact that Karlsson helped invent the atom bomb and apparently feels not the least bit bad about it, the film regularly sees him cause the deaths, albeit mostly accidental, of people who cross his path. As it turn out, stupidity and nastiness doesn't make for an entertaining mix. The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared can hardly disappear from cinemas soon enough.