The best and, strangely, most ironic part is that this work of cinematic warmth takes place in the wintry and freezing streets of Norway's Oslo and Bergen. Written and directed by Bent Hammer, who also directed the absurdly funny “Kitchen Stories” (2003) and “Factotum” (2005), which was a new perspective on a slice of Charles Bukowski's life, “O'Horten” creates a universe of Nordic existentialism at its best, carrying with it the kind of rare compassion that many directors try to illustrate but fail to do so.At age 67, Odd Horten (Baard Owe) is a soft-spoken, pipe-smoking and solitary (not to be mistaken with lonely) train engineer who runs the Oslo-Bergen line. His life is composed of fixed schedules, and his co-workers are not much different: In their spare time, they play a kind of trivia game solely encompassing different models of trains throughout history. When Odd arrives in Bergen, he always stays at a cozy little pension run by Fru, a lady his own age. Odd and Fru maintain a genuine friendship; however, there is definitely more in the air, though Odd would never imagine pursuing a different kind of relationship. Just like everything else fixed in his life, Odd comes to the pension, Fru feeds him and they have a lovely chat and the next day he leaves for Oslo. But things take on a whole new level for Odd, with just a minuscule change in events.
On the eve of his retirement, Odd is invited to a friend's house; somehow he cannot open the door of the apartment building and finds himself climbing a scaffold and entering through a neighbor's window. There, he meets a small blond kid who politely coerces him into staying by his side while he sleeps. This scene is beyond priceless. Waking up the next morning in the kid's house, he delicately escapes only to miss his last train run to Bergen. What shall Odd do all day? He's probably never missed a day of work in his life.
As we follow him through the streets of Oslo, visiting his Olympic champion ski jumper mother and bumping into complete strangers throughout the day, we fall under the lure of director Hammer and actor Owe's creative synergy of dead-pan comical vignettes. Odd enters a coffee shop inspired by a David Lynch movie populated with a band of lonesome marginal characters; he later goes swimming at a night pool, not knowing that he's almost invading the tryst of two lovers; he visits his favorite tobacco shop and runs into a strange man who introduces himself as a diplomat. He takes a car ride with the man, who also claims he can drive with his eyes closed. Watching Odd in the presence of these strange characters, one is completely amused by Odd's own amusement at these characters. He does not judge their nuttiness and absurdity, he does not talk much, but he watches and accompanies them with a subtle smile that does not imply any kind of mockery, only the kind of fascination that one experiences in the presence of the variety of human oddity. It is the small things that point to the larger things, and although these vignettes are simplistic in nature, they organically address matters of death and life without ever bombarding the viewer with grandiose statements and concepts.
The cinematography of the film is astounding in its encapsulation of the cold and matte Scandinavian colors and transformation of them into an almost fairytale-like space which still holds its grounds in reality. The city of Oslo appears a lonesome place, but in its isolation, it looks like the kind of setting where all sorts of bizarre and wonderful things can happen. And so they do, especially to Odd, who has come to a certain age where he must find a way to continue his newly empty life. The last scene, where he realizes what he must do to make the meaningless meaningful, is superb in its effortless execution.
“O'Horten” is the kind of film you talk about with your friends, telling them how a film can be so beautifully absurd and yet so real and sincere at the same time. And once you observe that kind expression on Owe's creased face, in your mind, the definition of benevolence will always be associated with his touching performance.
