Norwegian writer-director Bent Hamer continues to examine his isolated elderly countrymen with dry humanist humor and an eye for everyday absurdity. In “Kitchen Stories” (2003) a Swedish market researcher hired to observe the kitchen habits of an old Norwegian bachelor breaks protocol. Muted companionship ensues. Now Hamer observes Odd Horten (Bard Owe), a pipe-smoking train engineer on the occasion of his retirement from the Oslo-Bergen run. A daisychain of slips and mishaps leads the sturdy, taciturn Horten on a snowy odyssey among Oslo strangers. A.O. Scott at the New York Times nicely characterized as “Keatonesque” the quandaries negotiated by Horten the all-around improviser. Epiphanies slip through the interstices. In honoring his elders, Hamer dedicates this affectionate, if dour character study this way: “In memory of my mother and all other female ski jumpers.” With Espen Skjønberg, Githa Nørby, Bjørn Floberg, Kai Remlov, Henny Moan, Bjarte Hjelmeland. 90m. (Bill Stamets)
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Norwegian writer-director Bent Hamer continues to examine his isolated elderly countrymen with dry humanist humor and an eye for everyday absurdity. In “Kitchen Stories” (2003) a Swedish market researcher hired to observe the kitchen habits of an old Norwegian bachelor breaks protocol. Muted companionship ensues. Now Hamer observes Odd Horten (Bard Owe), a pipe-smoking train engineer on the occasion of his retirement from the Oslo-Bergen run. A daisychain of slips and mishaps leads the sturdy, taciturn Horten on a snowy odyssey among Oslo strangers. A.O. Scott at the New York Times nicely characterized as “Keatonesque” the quandaries negotiated by Horten the all-around improviser. Epiphanies slip through the interstices. In honoring his elders, Hamer dedicates this affectionate, if dour character study this way: “In memory of my mother and all other female ski jumpers.” With Espen Skjønberg, Githa Nørby, Bjørn Floberg, Kai Remlov, Henny Moan, Bjarte Hjelmeland. 90m. (Bill Stamets)
