The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

This review may contain spoilers!

This is an inspired comedy that reminded me of the likes of Mann, Tarentino and Anderson. I would give The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared a 7.5/10.

This film is beautifully shot and edited in a way that is quite pleasant, jolly, and clever in how it progresses both adventure and history. The special effects, namely the explosions were brilliant and the music had such a wonderfully catchy tune that you came away humming it. More than anything this story had a clever sense of comedy about it, one that was fueled more than anything by dramatic irony. I haven't seen a film this clever in a while so it was really refreshing to see something so intelligently put together. I highly recommend this film for anyone who wants to be entertained by this breakout hit from Sweden.

Iwar Wiklander, who played Julius, was a very rowdy and boisterous role and was very charming within the film. Mia Skaringer, who played Gunilla, was incredibly strong with a hilairious activist quality, she was all bark and bite. Jens Hulten, who played Gaddan, was a very funny villain, with an amusing language barrier gag. David Shackleton, who played Herbert Einstein, was just pure cheap gag comedy at it's finest; he was used effectively in this film. Philip Rosch, who played Robert Oppenheimer, was one of the funniest out of all the historical figure cameos; his arrogance and banter becoming the stand out scene of the film.

However it was Robert Gustafsson, who played Allan Karlsson, that really made this film for me. Gustafsson wandered through this film with a cloud of ignorance and slapstick that was both ingenious and stupidly comedic. He was a Chaplin of sorts in the way he hit each scene with exactly the right note. This is an acting master at work and I would go just to watch him perform again.

I feel like this film remained quite humble and limited by it's budget to a degree that certain elements were not as convincing as they could have been. I also found the costumes and sets to be rather basic.

David Wiberg, who played Benny, was tiring to watch; his acting was painfully slow and his role had no heart to it. Alan Ford, who played Pim, was a very repetitive villain with little presence and an underwhelming arc. Ralph Carlsson, who played Chief Inspector Aronsson, was boring and didn't add much other than a presence of the law to the story.