Based on the internationally best-selling novel by Jonas Jonasson, the movie The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared is a colorful, slapstick comedy about Allan Karlsson, a lifelong explosives enthusiast, who finds himself stuck in a nursing home. Seemingly out of boredom, on his 100th birthday, Karlsson leaps out a window and begins an unexpected journey.
Half of the movie is about Allan’s present life adventures, which involve accidentally getting hold of a suitcase full of cash only to contend with a dangerous biker gang, an angry mobster, and a rogue elephant. The other half intermittently flashes back to recount Allan’s life story, a Gump-esque odyssey that sees his passion for explosives attract the attention of everyone from Joseph Stalin to Robert Oppenheimer. There’s also a crazy scene in which Allan befriends Herbert Einstein, Albert’s idiot brother, in a Soviet Gulag and spends months trying to explain an escape plan to him.
The 100-Year-Old Man is the third-highest-grossing Swedish film of all time, trailing only the original version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and its first sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire. The 100-Year-Old Man appears to be Sweden’s answer to Forrest Gump, which perhaps makes the film seem more universally appealing. Robert Gustofsson, who plays Allan Karlsson, is reportedly Sweden’s most popular comedian. And, he’s the Swedish voice of Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc. and of Sid in the Ice Age films.
Originally released in Sweden in December 2013, the film has taken some time to come to theaters in America.
Gary Reiner
Comfortably Numm 
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