Photo by John Christian Rosenlund
Norwegian train engineer Odd Horten (Bard Owe) takes some unexpected side trips after his retirement party in the film "O'Horten."
Photo by John Christian Rosenlund
Norwegian train engineer Odd Horten (Bard Owe) takes some unexpected side trips after his retirement party in the film "O'Horten."
The moment the train leaves the station without train driver Odd Horten aboard, he realizes that the path ahead is a journey without printed timetables ...
Rating: PG-13 for brief nudity
Length: 90 minutes
Released: May 22, 2009 Limited
Cast: Peter Bredal, Bjørn Floberg, Nils Gaup, Peder Anders Lohne Hamer, Bjarte Hjelmeland
Director: Bent Hamer
Writer: Bent Hamer
Apparently, nothing surprises Norwegians.
In the Norwegian film “O’Horten,” Bard Owe plays title character Odd Horten, a veteran train engineer begrudgingly celebrating the start of his retirement years. He is sidetracked from his historically strict schedule during a party in his honor and misses what was supposed to be his last train-driving trip.
Literally and figuratively, it marks the beginning of a mellow series of off-track adventures for the stoic loner whose most roguish passion is pipe smoking. Though he has lived a highly regimented routine for some 40 years, he amiably rolls with the punches that suddenly start coming his way.
As Odd makes his way around Oslo, the new randomness in his life doesn’t cause him stress so much as gives him amused pauses. Intrigued by new experiences, he adapts in increasingly bolder ways to the minor roadblocks that life puts in his ambling path. When he loses his prized pipe, he simply buys a new one just like it. But later, when he loses his shoes at the spa, he steals a pair of women’s shiny red high-heel boots (and walks quite expertly in them).
On the whole, “O’Horten” is a minimalist character study about a quiet, lonely man whose long, quiet life is suddenly full of quiet new possibilities. It doesn’t seem as if he will be disappointed with whatever comes to pass. Odd is a perfectly likable fellow, so it is ultimately gratifying, if not at all surprising, when he re-seizes the reigns of fate and — calmly and quietly — takes control of his life again.
© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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