The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is the latest film shown at the Arthouse Film Festival this evening. The film is from Sweden, and is based on a book of the same name, that’s sold over 6 million copies. The movie opens in NYC soon.

The story revolves around Allan Karlsson, and man who is in a nursing home, and has turned 100 years of age. He is momentarily distracted by a kid setting off fireworks, she he skips out on his birthday party, and wanders out to investigate. He decides to just leave the home, so he heads down to the local bus station and buys a ticket on the first bus out. While there, a punk forces him to watch his suitcase, but Allan’s bus arrives, so he takes the luggage. Little does he know what’s inside…

The chase begins. Allan meets people who join him on his “flight”. The film intersperses that story with flashbacks of Allan’s life, from birth onward. Allan has a meager upbringing, but after the deaths of his parents, he develops a wanderlust, never staying in any given place for long. He manages to stumble upon several world-changing events, like the Spanish Civil War, The Manhattan Project, and so on. If you’re thinking of Forrest Gump, add a touch of Being there, and you’ve got it. This movie plays like a farce, with a mix of black comedy, and, like those two films I mentioned, there are convenient coincidences aplenty.

Almost all of it is played for laughs. He rubs elbows with world leaders who befriend him and then want him to do things for them, but he can’t seem to be fully engaged or really let himself get distracted by the situation, even when things start crashing down on him. He has a sort of mellowness that evens him out. Allan is a “smarter” Chauncey Gardner, who never lets the circumstances affect what he wants to do.

This film has some occasional brutal violence, and is therefore not for the lighthearted. DO NOT watch the trailer for the film, it gives far too much away. The film is half in English, the rest in subtitled Swedish.

I wouldn’t rate it as a ‘must see in the theaters’, mainly because it’s a film focused on interpersonal relationships, but it’s worth watching nonetheless.