I was honestly surprised by this movie. It’s based on the bestselling sentimental novel of the same name by Frederik Bachman, but it isn’t cloying and it’s worth a look for its take on connection, aging, immigration and Sweden today. Ove ( Rolf Lassgard, one of Sweden’s foremost dramatic stage actors) is a 59-yo widower (made up to look much older than his, Lassgard’s, or even my years) with a very bad attitude towards pretty much everyone and everything. I can, of course, relate. He’s cut off and alienated almost everyone and everything around him. He is quick to judge and often really gets it wrong. His backstory makes it clear why connection is so hard for him. But his ordered world, and indeed, his exit from it, is disrupted by the arrival of new residents into his ordered community. Iranian immigrant Parvenah (the finely-tuned Behar Pars), her less than competent Swedish husband Patrick, and their kids change Ove’s life trajectory in a serious way, reconnecting him with the living. The film resolves some things in a way that seems like a victory but actually allows pretty nefarious folks to continue their bad acts even as it happily resolves Ove’s personal problems. One might think about whether that’s a happy ending to a social problem. Still, it’s a nice, sentimental and kind film without being sloppy sweet. Pars’ view of the film and her role which she rightly sees as presenting a different view of an Iranian woman immigrant, is especially interesting as is the discussion of making a much beloved and much richer novel into a film by the director and author of the screenplay, Hannes Holm. Both are found on an attached feature on the making of the movie