With such a title I was immediately interested. Because what kind of movie can you expect? A man of that age probably won’t be able to walk very well so how can he disappear? I came across this movie on Netflix and decided to give it a chance. Is it a film worth watching?|
Allan Karlsson (Robert Gustafsson) is that 100-year-old man, who ends up in a home for the elderly, although he doesn’t want to be there himself. During his long life he has experienced a lot, but he wants to get away from the place he is in now. During his birthday, which is a big event where a lot of people (including press) are present, he decides to leave. He doesn’t have a plan, but he meets a skinhead at the train station and he decides to take his suitcase. It turns out that the content of the case is very important and he ends up being pursued by a gang. Meanwhile the police is investigating his mysterious disappearance.
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared can be best compared to a movie like Forrest Gump, only with a much lighter tone. Allan tells the story about his life. He starts at the moment he was born, tells how he lost his parents at an early age and how he has always loved blowing things up. That passion for explosives leads to him joining the resistance against Franco in Spain, but eventually also makes him end up in Russia. He isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, says yes to almost anything and it’s exactly those traits the movie uses for its humour, which is regularly dark into tone. All in all a fun movie which doesn’t take itself seriously and is enjoyable to watch.
