O'Horten
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 22, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Enlivened with droll wit and framed with robust sensitivity, O'Horten is an amusing and entrancing personal portrait. Succinct in its visualizations and crisp in its pacing, its deferential storytelling is in sync with its Odd subject. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
O'Horten is a precise, deadpan drama of slapstick existentialism - a Bent Hamer movie, in other words. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Odd is played by Baard Owe, a trim, fit man with a neat mustache, who may cause you to think a little of James Stewart, Jacques Tati or Jean Rochefort. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
Director Bent Hamer ("Factotum") keeps things drily amusing throughout. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Jack Nicholson's dyspeptic retiree in "About Schmidt" would no doubt identify with O'Horten's entertaining pain. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
O’Horten feels like a waking dream. It's a film of subtle, insinuating charm, a character study about an eminently sane, reasonable man unsteadily navigating an increasingly insane, unreasonable world. Read full review
80
VarietyAlissa Simon
On screen non-stop, Owe is Buster Keaton-like perfection. Read full review
80
Village VoiceScott Foundas
The movie, on its own modest terms, satisfies greatly. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
This is a gentle comedy, both funny and melancholy, about a timid soul who discovers the necessity of embracing life in all its absurdity and unlooked-for joy. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
In a literal sense this delightful film, in Norwegian with English subtitles, is about retirement and the prospect of loss. But Mr. Hamer, a poet of the droll and askew, sends the aptly named Odd--it's also a common Norwegian name--on a cockeyed journey from regret through comic confusion to a lovely eagerness for new adventures. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Strange, unpredictable, and sometimes magical. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A spare and perfectly droll kinda-sorta comedy from Norwegian director Hamer. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A deadpan delight. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
The strangeness, humor and melancholy of aging are deftly explored in this film. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen Cole
In a better entertainment world, Owe would have won a special Buster Keaton Great Stoneface award at last year's Academy Awards. Read full review
70
Washington PostDan Zak
Depending on your patience for oddball mood pieces, you will either sleep through O' Horten or be oddly captivated. Either way, it'll be like dreaming. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
O'Horten is about frustration, patience, kindness and the wildness that lurks in even the calmest hearts. What's odd about that? Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
A quiet, oddly serene movie with a curious soul. Read full review
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