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O'Horten
Metascore
78 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Duane Byrge
    90
    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.
  2. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    88
    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.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    88
    O'Horten is a precise, deadpan drama of slapstick existentialism - a Bent Hamer movie, in other words.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    83
    Jack Nicholson's dyspeptic retiree in "About Schmidt" would no doubt identify with O'Horten's entertaining pain.
  5. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Marc Mohan
    83
    Director Bent Hamer ("Factotum") keeps things drily amusing throughout.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    83
    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.
  7. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    80
    The movie, on its own modest terms, satisfies greatly.
  8. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    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.
  9. Variety
    Reviewed by: Alissa Simon
    80
    On screen non-stop, Owe is Buster Keaton-like perfection.
  10. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    80
    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.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    80
    Strange, unpredictable, and sometimes magical.
  12. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    78
    A spare and perfectly droll kinda-sorta comedy from Norwegian director Hamer.
  13. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    A deadpan delight.
  14. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    75
    The strangeness, humor and melancholy of aging are deftly explored in this film.
  15. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    75
    In a better entertainment world, Owe would have won a special Buster Keaton Great Stoneface award at last year's Academy Awards.
  16. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    70
    O'Horten is about frustration, patience, kindness and the wildness that lurks in even the calmest hearts. What's odd about that?
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Dan Zak
    70
    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.
  18. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    60
    A quiet, oddly serene movie with a curious soul.
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User Reviews

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User Score
7.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. slim
    10
    A touching movie. But not for people who have been ruined by Hollywood gloss, clearly.
  2. Dave
    9
    Very entertaining film. Since I"ve seen Kitchen Stories, I knew what to expect and I was not disappointed. May be a bit slow paced for some, but I thought it was a very interesting character study.… Full Review »
  3. Cat
    3
    Are these reviewers high? This movie was like watching ice melt. It tried to be quirky and offbeat and only succeeded in putting us to sleep. Every frame was dark, it was perpetual night even when it was day, (welcome to Norway) and the story never got underway. What were they piping into the screening the reviewers saw? Either they were stoned, part of a mass delusion, or money has changed hands.… Full Review »
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