Customer Reviews

The Bothersome Man

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This Norwegian film starts with a man jumping over the subway, apparently commiting suicide. But the next scene shows him arriving in a lonely bus into a desert. There he meets a man, and is shipped off to a mysterious city, where he starts working in an aseptic modern office as an accountant. The coworkers seem nice, if emotionless, and he soon meets a woman who becomes his girlfriend, yet the city seems utterly strange, as the food has no taste, alcohol doesn't make you drunk, and there's nary a children around. Is this a dream, or is he in paradise, or in hell?. While at times, the films looks as extended episode of The Twilight Zone (even at ninety minutes, the movie seems a bit long), it is quite thought provoking. The best scenes are those in which the exaggeration is minimal, as when the people engage in banal conversations about interior decoration, and recoil at discussing deeper issues. I always thought there was something inhuman in advanced capitalist societies, in the way they try to repress the basic urges of human nature. And this movie is best when it devastatingly critiques this life style. Unfortunately, the movie is a bit too long, and the director doesn't seem to know how to end it, but most for of the running time this is very much worth seeing.

This was a really interesting and somewhat disturbing movie. How do I put it? Anyone read Albert Camus' The Stranger (L'Étranger)? You have that very impersonal guy, Meursault who is very disconnected with the rest of the world. Meursault navigates himself through a world personned by color, emotion, feeling, spirituality, life and so on, and yet he is totally not connected to any of it.

This movie seems sort of to be giving you a reverse situation. It is as if it asks - what happens to a person when he finds himself in a world populated by Meursaults? And that is just what happens. Andreas apparently winds up at a bus stop in a desert-like place and from there is taken to a very modern spic and span city. Here he is given perhaps everything that anyone could want in life - a job, friends, a girlfriend, nice apartment, etc. - What more could you ask for in life??? - Yet in spite of it all something is missing. The city, which he reached by way of the desert is itself a desert of sorts. The city (and its people) lacks color, emotion, feeling, etc. It is nothing but flesh, bone and nerve amidst concrete, gravel and steel. It is a hollow place. Andreas' sense that there something not right with the place increases as he finds the place to be more and more alienating. Ok - I'll stop here and not say anymore about the story -

The movie seems to be some kind of existential commentary on modern societies, where on the surface, you seem to have everything, but deep within have nothing, and the lives lived are those of Thoreau's quiet desperation.

- Very good and intelligent movie.

I won't go on ... I can't go on ... I'll go on.

The main character has incredible fortitude, and in spite of his suicidal tendencies he really does want to live - he just keeps looking for a different world to live in, one that must be greener, happier than the one he has. I myself work in a drab office with fake people, and this depiction had me laughing out loud, everyone in gray, the shabbiness of the coffee break area, it is an absolute hell on earth but this picture has me half brainwashed that I should not try to leave! The message is to just go on living, somehow, with the tasteless food that is presented to you, the meaningless sex, etc., don't complain or you'll be handed something worse! It reminds me so much of Bush and his mysterious WMDs. Hysterical.

Don't take it all too seriously, just enjoy the film, the natural gullibility of the lead actor, and the exquisite cinematography. You could not make a film like this in America. Thanks, Amazon, for bringing it to us.

This movie was wonderfully bizarre. In fact, it was so bizarre, I am certain that I missed some type of symbolism or something.

It starts off with a man in a subway watching (listening) to a couple that were loudly and unashamedly sucking face. He decides to jump in front of a speeding subway car. The next scene shows him being dropped off in the boonies. He is taken to a town in which there is no young people. No music. No emotion. A very antiseptic society.

Bizarre is a word for this film. I just wish I could have seen the meanings in the movie. There are so many little things in the film, like the men in the gray coats that drive the little gray car that always pick up the deceased or injured in the society. Almost as if they are there to clean or rid the society of the refuse they do not want.

Wonderfully acted and put together, I enjoyed the film regardless of what I have said in this review. This film is available on Amazon Prime and is very much worth watching!

This is the society in which I live! On a daily basis, I ponder the elements that are explored in this film. It is, indeed, thought-provoking and a reminder of just how far we have sold our souls in exchange for the superficial and mundane. Although I understand what this movie tried to say, on so many levels, I do not need clarity as to where he is or winds up at the end. Isn't that for each of us to decide for ourselves? Just as it is our individual responsibility to define and make our quality of life as we see fit? It is comforting to know that I am not the only "bothersome man (human)" and that there are others who do not accept things as they arw as well. But where to go and how to escape it as I find no concrete to drill into, no light at the end of the tunnel? Perhaps that's for us to construct as well? To do the best in making our own niche in a superficial and hollow society. This film will be with me for awhile as I continue to wrap my mind around it.

Our main character, Andreas, offs himself by jumping in front of a train. Next thing you know he's on a bus to a way station where he's escorted to a new apartment and a waiting job. Everything is at an easy pace. Money is no problem, work load is light, his apartment is nice if but a bit austere and everyone he meets is pleasant.

But that seems to be the problem with everything. There are no highs or lows. There are no children around and everyone he sees or works with is about his age. No one is too fat or too skinny. No one is too tall or too short. All the colors are muted and all the furniture is minimalist. The food is bland and he can drink liquor till the cows come home and he isn't going to get drunk. Even the act of sex seems to be bland and unfulfilling.

There is much more to this but I don't wish to spoil.

This is a quirky idea. I'm not sure he's in Hell, (a point which is underlined by the final scene) but he's in no place I'd like to be. This is a film from the Icelandic Film Company but I believe it's really Swedish or Norwegian. I'm also wondering if they aren't making a statement about their society. That they are a totally even-keeled society that has lost all sense of adventure and passion. The opening scene shows Andreas in an underground train station. The only other people there are a youngish couple doing some heavy mouth to mouth. But their eyes are open and there seems to be no real passion. Just a going through the motions sort of thing. That's when he does himself in.

The concept is so good I wouldn't be surprised if the script wrote itself. This is a very well realized movie. The set, costumes, color schemes must have been easy to put together. It's shot well, acted well and has a very good musical score. If there is a reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is because it makes so much sense so quickly. You pretty much get what is going on early in the movie, so each new scene does little more than underscore what you already know. The reason you keep watching is to see how things will resolve themselves. I'm very curious as to how viewers will read the final scene.

Being a foreign, subtitled film, it certainly won't be for everyone. But for any viewer predisposed toward this sort of thing it's well worth the time to view it.

This is not a film that grabbed my attention from the first frame but ultimately is a satisfying-puzzling-thought-provoking film. The film is very visual with the choice of landscapes, urban development and interior decor carrying a significant role in moving the story-line forward. The use of sound brings emphasis to the visual elements - especially the silence.

The plot is fascinating in that it works ... it is essentially a middle with neither beginning nor end. That is to say that why/how Andreas, the protagonist, is delivered to the false utopian city is never known. And at the end where Andreas leaps from a moving bus into the light, the result of that leap is never shown. This leaves the viewer a very open interpretation possibility. The bland superficiality of the city may be an indictment of comtemporary culture, of the failure of utopian dreams, of individuals satisfied with the appearance of pleasure rather than actual pleasure ...

The short film on the dvd is True Story by Stephanie J. Via. The setting is well chosen, the script believable. For my taste, however, the hammering home of the social message rather than trusting the strength of the art (film) is a serious flaw.

A very Scandinavian saga of a man having arrived from nowhere and kicked back into nowhere after not fitting bosses in monarchic urban Norway, disturbing the viewers with his mental-state-linked-suicide-attraction as all his members had been reinstated miraculously after being demolished substantially.

Some public toilet tunes and enjoying a company of men steadily.

Too deep meaning for a mind average.

I have just a couple of things to add to previous reviewers who have already covered this film quite adequately.

Point one is that, if you are the sort of person who likes mysterious films to eventually have clear explanations, perhaps you should look for a different movie. Unlike a typical Twilight Zone episode, there is no narrator to explain what happened here in case you missed it, you will need to figure it out for yourself.

Point two is that I was surprised how bloody the film was, I guess I made an assumption given its lack of a rating. I'm guessing this movie would be rated R, if it were rated, for two or three moderately gory parts and some (darkened) bedroom scenes. Not for children or the squeamish.

This darkly satiric film is certainly open to more than one interpretation, from the social to the metaphysical ... and all of them would be applicable, I think. But for me, it especially works as a commentary on the superficial slickness of modern society, where everyone gets along by sticking to the surface, playing their roles as expected & being so very nice & civil. But not really civilized, I fear, because the passion & depth that define true civilization are both completely missing in this clean, neat city, which looks as if it sprang to (pseudo)life right out of the ads in a luxury magazine. It all looks wonderful at first ... but the food has no flavor, the settings have no color, and even the sex is mechanical & unsatisfying.

While most of the city's citizens -- or consuming units, really -- seem perfectly happy with this situation, newcomer Andreas doesn't quite fit in, no matter how much he tries at first. And when he becomes aware of a crack in a basement wall, where he can smell freshly baked bread & hear lovely music & glimpse golden sunlight ... well, that's it for him. He's desperate to escape his sterile surroundings for something genuine & authentic. But will that be allowed by the rest of the city?

I won't spoil what happens next. Suffice it to say that Kafka, among others, would recognize this territory, which is the glossy & empty facade of the consumer life, where all is surface & there's no substance. Yet so many people are vaguely content with this pale approximation of an inwardly rich & real life -- and those who can't accept the sugary lie are often ostracized for it. After all, if you've sold your soul for a hollow fantasy, who wants a bothersome man around to remind you of it?

Highly recommended!