A Man Called Ove - Blu-ray

Film: Ove (Rolf Lassgård) seems to be a neighbour from hell. He pedantically makes his inspection rounds every morning, taking note of all the parking violations, locking up troublesome bicycles, and making sure trash is disposed of properly. Ove doesn't take much pleasure in his constant checks and his grumpy manner. But only a few people know the sad story behind Ove's behaviour. Because actually he has a damn big heart, which seems to know no joy after the death of his beloved wife. When he also loses his job and is doomed to early retirement, Ove decides the time has come to leave this world. But then a new family moves in next door, throwing his plan right out of whack.

With his debut novel, A Man Called Ove, author Fredrik Backman has not only managed to become an absolute bestseller in Sweden. The wonderful story also made it to the top of the sales lists in many of the more than 30 countries where the book has been published so far. No wonder that a film adaptation was not long in coming. The renowned director and screenwriter Hannes Holm has turned the great book into an enchanting film that has even left Star Wars behind in Sweden. Why is that? It's easy to explain with a statement by Steven Spielberg, who once said what makes a really good film for him: it must be able to make the audience laugh and cry at the same time. And that's exactly what A Man Called Ove manages to do quite wonderfully.

Dramaturgically, the film has two levels. On the one hand, there is the story of an unusual friendship between Ove and his new neighbours, which is occasionally tinged with a bit of black humour. Here, numerous clichés are used again and again and Ove's transformation from an old curmudgeon to a lovable grandpa from next door doesn't really offer many surprises. But the realization - from the wonderful play of Rolf Wallander Lassgård over the music to the atmospheric camera work - always hits exactly the right point and works despite a certain predictability simply Best.

The second layer is the very emotional look at Ove's life. From his childhood to the loss of his father to the love of his life, Sonja (Ida Engvoll). These scenes are full of magical little moments that help the viewer see Ove more and more through different eyes. With a perfect mix of subtle humor, heartfelt romance and touching drama, an ever-increasing emotionality is built up, culminating in a finale that will hardly leave a dry eye in the house. But even though the ending can't really be called happy, the audience won't leave the cinema frustrated. As with the rest of the film, Hannes Holm knows perfectly how to stage the ending in such a way that happiness and sadness go hand in hand here completely harmoniously and the viewer is released into reality not only with a tear in his eye, but also with a smile on his lips.

A Man Called Ove may not reinvent the wheel. But the film manages to be bitter and velvety, hilarious and deeply sad, dark and beautiful in a very unexciting way. And for that, the conclusion is a more than deserved: absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality. The visuals nicely capture the moody atmosphere at all temporal levels of the story with a high level of image sharpness and a powerful color mix. The matching of contrasts and black levels are also on a good level and support the overall positive impression throughout. The audio is present in a fairly lively DTS-HD Master Audio mix, with small surround effects every now and then ensuring that pleasant movement is added to the multichannel. Good.

Extras: As a bonus, the Blu-ray unfortunately only has the trailer and other program tips to offer. Too bad, because extras about the adaptation of the book or the work of the production designers would have been really interesting here.

Conclusion: A Man Called Ove is a wonderful adaptation of the best-selling book of the same name. The film manages to be equally bitter and velvety, hilarious and deeply sad, somber and beautiful in a very unexciting way. The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality, the only negative here being the lack of bonus material. But the film is strong enough to console over this shortcoming. And therefore there is also a clear: Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp