This incredibly funny and endearing film is one of the most upbeat things I’ve seen this year. Long story short, not unlike the title suggests, Allan is turning 100 and is stuck in a nursing home. Reminiscing through pictures and stories from his past, Allan decides to jump out of the window and go on an adventure, anywhere. He ends up with a suitcase full of money belonging to some pretty scary people and on his way to freedom he runs into other wayward souls that get entangled in his absurd journey.
Lead actor Robert Gustafsson is an absolute delight. Comic timing and facial expressions of a real genius, he takes this film through time and through encounters with historical figures like Ronald Reagan and Joseph Stalin, just to name a few. With a passion for blowing things up and an innate ability to talk to anyone, Allan becomes a double agent, a soldier, and perhaps the actual creator of the atomic bomb.
The film is a mixture of scenes from Allan’s youth and the shenanigans he’s gotten himself into on his birthday. Adapted beautifully from the novel of the same name by author Jonas Jonasson, with the help of screenwriters Felix Herngren & Hans Ingemansson, it is definitely full of belly laughs and good times. Herndren, also the director, gives us a colorful, lush, and impeccable comedic foreign film, unlike the many melodramatic features we’re used to getting from over seas. The theater I was in was in stitches the entire duration, and when you can get a theater full of critics laughing, well that’s a feat unto itself. I highly recommend you catch this movie. It is available in theaters in on demand!
Powered by the antics of a mischievous centenarian on the run, comic fable The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed out the Window and Disappeared abounds with irreverent charm. After a long and colorful life working in munitions and getting entangled in the Spanish Civil War, the Manhattan Project, and other definitive events of the 20th century, Allan Karlsson finds himself stuck in a nursing home. Determined to escape on his 100th birthday, he leaps out of a window and onto the nearest bus, kicking off an unexpected journey involving, among other surprises, a suitcase stuffed with cash, some wicked criminals, and an elephant named Sonya. Like an unruly Nordic cousin of Forrest Gump, Allan’s youthful escapades and current adventures weave together into an offbeat treat for anyone who’s young at heart. Starring beloved comedian Robert Gustafsson, this fanciful spin on world history is based on a best-selling novel and also the highest-grossing Swedish film of all time.
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