While watching “The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared” (hereafter called 100!) I would flash on to Peter Sellers in “Being There” and Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” more so the latter due to Robert Gustafsson’s performance as a man, Allan, who meets famous people in history and sometimes changes the course of that history.

The flashbacks to Allan’s earlier years, and his love of pyrotechnics at times, plays with your head and makes you lose track now and then though this movie doesn’t go as deep as the other two but we join him on his adventures after climbing out that window stumbling on a suitcase of money, rescues a elephant and wanting to live and see 101!

The biggest problem I had with the film was that it seemed to have been written by at least a dozen writers and had a feeling that ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ so much to my surprise I see it was written only by the director, Felix Hemgren, who also directed, and Hans Ingemansson based on a best selling Swedish novel by Jonas Jonasson. There are 6 different languages used and characters come and go without explanation. One minute it is a comedy and the next it seems to be reaching for farce while a lot of slapstick is thrown in but it doesn’t quite gel. A lot of the humor fell flat for me though there was a guy in the audience was laughing constantly.

The cast is led by Robert Gustafsson who doesn’t seem to make the role he plays, that of Allan Karlsson, likeable and for a guy who blows up people, gets sterilized because he ‘must have some Negro blood due to the size of his penis’, kills people and walks away as if nothing happened, that likeability is missing. Allan goes through life seemingly not aware of all the chaos he creates around him and for other people.

I’m not quite sure who played who but I believe as his partner in crime Iwar Wiklander  seemed more solid than Gustaffson while Mia Skaringer as Gunilla exchanged some sharp dialogue with a few of the men particularly a ‘suitor’ who is ‘almost’ everything.

While Allen liked this film a lot more than I did I am inclined to put it on my 2015 ‘worst’ list.

TRAILER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-7VM1QOrI0