This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I recently listened to the audiobook version of the novel by Fredrik Backman (narrated by George Newbern) so I went into the movie knowing what was going to happen. While this did give me a "comparing" perspective that I wouldn't typically have, I was still able to settle in and enjoy it.The main actors are terrific and carry the movie. While he's not exactly what I pictured when listening to the book (Ove is characterized as appearing more physically imposing and less "soft"), Rolf Lassgård really nails the most important role in the film. Bahar Pars, while less is asked of her acting-wise, is equally wonderful in the role of Parvaneh. Other than Sonja the rest of the other actors are forgettable in their roles.This movie held up to my expectations for most of the way through, but the ending fell short of the impact that I felt with the book and due to that I'd consider this more of a "good" movie than "great" one.In directly comparing to the book there are a number of details outside of the main Ove/Sonja narrative that had to be left out, which of course is expected. What I do feel that the movie lacks is being able to explain the relationships that Ove has with the other people in his life (outside of Sonja and Parvaneh). Some of those are equally powerful in showing Ove's strong moral compass and at the same time explaining why he acts the way he does.

This is one of those movies where you hate to criticize it because there are so few movies nowadays that are effecting and tell a story for grown-ups. And for the first two-thirds or so the film IS absorbing, and the characters are touching. The humor of a man who, try as he may, cannot kill himself, is hard to resist. But in the end, this curmudgeon-becomes-loving-and-lovable story feels hackneyed and false. Ove rails against the bureaucracy of the "whiteshirts," but as many have pointed out when asked, "What did people do before the government got involved in (fill in the blank),"... well, they were abused, or were poisoned, or were killed. I don't know -- maybe it's a Swedish thing of an overbearing state, and there is a real risk of the infirm being carted away by money-minded caretakers (or at least there was one such story in the papers). But Ove's world view seems rather like that of a (rather unappealing) Idaho separatist. Moreover, I felt cheated that the fact his wife spent her adult life in a wheelchair wasn't disclosed until near the end. It would have come up more naturally earlier in the story, and leaving it for last felt like manipulation. Again, the movie is certainly watchable, or at least most of it. But ultimately I think it is a failure, and its rating among critics too high.

Loved this with the family. Touching but not Disney. Gritty enough to feel real, but you get to love the old man.

I can't make up my mind about this one's rating. The story provides absolutely nothing that hasn't been seen before. Quite the opposite, you'll only get exactly what you'd expect from a tale about lonely old grumpy man, warming up to his environment. But because it's well done and has charm, I'll add one point to the 6/10, that the script would actually deserve.