Synopsis
Odd Horton is dependable and contained: he's a train driver retiring after 40 years of service, living a simple life. His idea of adventure is to fly from one city in Norway to another. Starting on the night of his retirement dinner, Odd has a series of dislocating experiences: a boy insists that Odd sit by his bedside while he falls asleep; misadventure causes Odd to miss his last run; he witnesses an arrest; he assists an old man and makes a friend; he takes a trip with a blindfolded driver; he adopts a dog; he takes stock late one night at the roundhouse; he revisits his mother's disappointment in him. How should he live the rest of his life?
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Cast
- Baard OweOdd Horten
- Espen SkjønbergTrygve Sissener
- Ghita NørbyMrs. Thøgersen
- Bjørn FlobergFlo
- Henny MoanSvea
- Bjarte HjelmelandConductor
- Kai RemlovSteiner Sissener
- Trond-Viggo TorgersenOpsahl
- Per JansenTrain Driver
Recommendations
- 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Enlivened with droll wit and framed with robust sensitivity, O'Horten is an amusing and entrancing personal portrait. Succinct in its visualizations and crisp in its pacing, its deferential storytelling is in sync with its Odd subject. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Odd is played by Baard Owe, a trim, fit man with a neat mustache, who may cause you to think a little of James Stewart, Jacques Tati or Jean Rochefort. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
Jack Nicholson's dyspeptic retiree in "About Schmidt" would no doubt identify with O'Horten's entertaining pain. - 80
Variety
On screen non-stop, Owe is Buster Keaton-like perfection. - 80
Village Voice
The movie, on its own modest terms, satisfies greatly. - 80
Los Angeles Times
This is a gentle comedy, both funny and melancholy, about a timid soul who discovers the necessity of embracing life in all its absurdity and unlooked-for joy. - 80
Wall Street Journal
In a literal sense this delightful film, in Norwegian with English subtitles, is about retirement and the prospect of loss. But Mr. Hamer, a poet of the droll and askew, sends the aptly named Odd--it's also a common Norwegian name--on a cockeyed journey from regret through comic confusion to a lovely eagerness for new adventures. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
The strangeness, humor and melancholy of aging are deftly explored in this film.
