Swedish "Ove" Foregoes Schmaltzy Sentimentality for Genuine, Heartwarming Feels.. ("Movie Monday")
I never had a grandpa--both were gone before I popped out, red-faced and screaming, into the world--which means I don't really know anything about how old men operate. In other words, the sum total of what I've gleaned comes from pop culture-- hello, books, movies, and TV --and jokes that involve elderly guys saying " Get outta my yard! " a lot. (Basically, the older a man gets, the grouchier he becomes..?) So, when I sat down to watch "A Man Called Ove" (the 2015 film based on the Fredrik Backman book by the same name), I figured I knew what to expect: a series of hopefully amusing (but most likely forced) situations involving a grumpy old coot, who'd undoubtedly turn into a big ol' teddy bear by the end. Okay, kinda ... but that doesn't BEGIN to describe "Ove" . Retiree Ove is, as expected, a curmudgeonly older chap (although not that old, this being a film made in Sweden, where adults aren't necessarily expected to wo...