| They're packed and ready
for the greatest adventure of their lives.
All they have to do is get out of the house.
 Based
on one of the most successful novels in Norwegian history
and feted as a 2002 Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee,
ELLING relates the “odd couple” misadventures
of two charming misfits hoping to find their place in
society.
We first meet our unlikely hero, Elling
(Per Christian Ellefsen, I AM DINA), after his
mother’s death, as he’s being thrown out
of his dilapidated home by the health authorities. Preternaturally
shy, fussy and neurotic, Elling has zero experience
with the outside world. He is, however, remarkably well-read
and his imagination is almost always in free flight.
Tossed in a state home, he’s forced
to room with the hulking Kjell-Bjarne (Sven Nordin,
I AM DINA), a lumbering brute who’s obsessed
with sex. Unlike his roommate, Kjell-Bjarne is buoyant,
good-natured and anxious to enter the outside world.
When they’re summarily kicked out
of the home, they’re placed in an apartment together
– and that’s when the hard part begins.
Super-timid Elling refuses to leave the building or
answer the telephone; and he will only allow Kjell-Bjarne
to make brief runs to the store. Gradually, however,
the outgoing Kjell-Bjarne strikes up a relationship
with the woman next door, which drives Elling into a
jealous rage. It also forces him to make the most important
decision in his life: embrace the fact that he can’t
control everything or retreat forever into the seeming
safety of his cocoon.
Filled with exquisitely observed comic
set pieces (including the masterful timing of the pair’s
first trip to a restaurant or their first encounter
with wine) and distinguished by an offbeat lyricism
(an amateur poet, Elling has a unique way of distributing
his masterpieces), ELLING is nothing if not charming
and life-affirming.
A huge hit in Norway, ELLING, gently
directed by first-time filmmaker Petter Næss,
is a deceptively good-natured comedy about neuroses,
slyly funny and genuinely heartwarming.
“If Felix and Oscar had been
Norwegian, they might have looked something like this.”
- Roger Ebert, Chcago Sun-Tribune
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