THE 100-YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED – The Review

Review by Stephen Jones

THE 100-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED is the sort of movie that’s difficult to write about. It leaves so little impression that there’s just not much to say. It’s a thoroughly middle of the road movie, with any outright flaws offset by the technical competence of the production. That it is now one of, if not the highest grossing films in its native country is a little perplexing, as it reminds me of one of those movies that someone mentions ten years later and you respond with “ohhhh yeah, I kinda remember that!” Like “Second-Hand Lions.”

“Second-Hand Lions” is actually the movie this reminded me of the most, with the elderly misadventures and things actually happening in the present-day plot. They were obviously going for a “Forrest Gump” feel, and there are definite traces of that as well, but fell far short. Even “Second-Hand Lions” had likable main characters. “The 100 Year Old Man…” lacks a single character to really get invested in. Just hijinks and really bad narration.

That narration alone keeps the movie from being really good. At first I wondered if it was some “Blade Runner” like situation where it was tacked on for international markets, but it seems like it was there from the start. Admittedly, the movie’s one charming moment came from the narration, but not until the very end.

So what’s the movie about? Well, there are the flashback scenes that give it the Gump/Lions vibe, telling us the backstory of our titular centenarian Allan Karlsson (played in youth by Robert Gustafsson, in old age by Robert Gustafsson in bad makeup) and his adventures through significant historical events. Then there’s the present day story, given by the title. He jumps out of the window in his nursing home and runs off. Then he winds up in possession of a gang member’s luggage full of money, then you paint red in the spaces marked number 1, blue in spaces marked number 2, and so on. Even if you can’t think of any specific movies, doesn’t that “winds up with someone’s briefcase full of money” plot sound sigh-inducingly familiar?

Maybe the movie’s sense of humor will be more your speed, though. If the thought of a guy slipping in elephant poop and subsequently getting sat on by said elephant sounds like something you’d laugh at, then maybe this movie is for you. But mostly I just found the movie boring. Not BAD, but definitely not particularly good. Just very, very mediocre.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

THE 100-YEAR OLD MAN WHO CLIMBED OUT THE WINDOW AND DISAPPEARED opens in St. Louis May 29th exclusively at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater