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Baard Owe, Espen Skjønberg, Ghita Nørby, Bjørn Floberg, Kai Remlov ... see more see more... , Henny Moan , Bjarte Hjelmeland , Per Jansen , Bjørn Jenseg , Kari Lolland , Lars ??yno , Trond-Viggo Torgersen , Peder Anders Lohne Hamer , Anette Sagen , Gard B. Eidsvold , Morten Rudå , Terje Alsvik Walløe

A septuagenarian taking his penultimate voyage from Oslo to Bergen begins to mentally prepare for his final trip, but finds that sometimes things don't turn out as expected when he misses the last dep... read more read more...arture for the first time in 40 years. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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57% liked it

21,841 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

83 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 30 min.

Directed by: Bent Hamer

Release Date: December 26, 2007

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DVD Release Date: June 19, 2009

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Stats: 287 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (287)

  • theylovealexis
    October 11, 2010
    theylovealexis
    I thought it would be a funny little story about a guy having a hard time settling in to retirement. But not so much. It wasn't funny, aside from one scene with an adorable little boy and for the most part it was boring. It had the potential, it just let me down in a really slow,... read more painful way.
  • gor41
    September 26, 2009
    gor41
    Typically melancholic meditation on retirement encased in a meandering plot where the lead bumps into a host of eccentrics who aid his introspection. Slight but not without charm.
  • RossCollinsUK
    May 9, 2009
    RossCollinsUK
    The retirement of a train driver provides more philosophical musings from Scandinavia with a touch of dry humour. Some nice cinematography and scenes of Norwegian life, but this isn't really an attention grabbing movie, just slow, light entertainment.
  • gator681
    August 24, 2010
    gator681
    "O'Horten" is an odd little movie about an unassuming man named Odd(Baard Owe). Living alone, the only person he feels a connection to is his mother(Kari Loland). Turning 67, he is retiring from his job as a railway engineer. His plan is to fly back after his last run but over... read moresleeps in a room not his own.(Long story, trust me.) Even after that, he continues to wear his uniform. And after watching life pass him by for so many decades, he has not decided what to do next which leads him on a series of low key adventures, shot in a deadpan style.

    In the end, "O'Horten" has little else to say on the subject of retirement and growing older except the light at the end of the tunnel may not be an oncoming train. However, the film does have a well-crafted message about how women should be allowed to compete in ski jumping. If you have the cojonoes to perform in this sport, then gender is totally irrelevant.
  • fb1144932598
    July 18, 2010
    fb1144932598
    Off-beat tale that moves very slowly. Odd Horten (Baard Owe) is forced into retirement from his long-time job as a passenger train engineer and finds a host of small adventures to fill his days and nights. He seems to operate without any clear sense of what he wants to do with th... read moree rest of his life, but reacts to each improbable situation as it confronts him. There are many scenes that defy explanation and are almost surreal. In the end, it seems to say that the journey is more important than the destination and that sometimes there simply is no destination. And that is alright, too. Quirky characters, a loose script that seems at times to have no clear sense of direction, and the frigid, stark scenery of winter in Norway combine to give the film an almost dream-like quality at times. Each item taken by itself would doom most films but work together here to create a tapestry, revealing a man seeking to break out of the strict routine of his former life.
  • lesleyanorton
    February 22, 2010
    lesleyanorton
    Odd Horten is a just-retired Norwegian train driver coming to grips with a life that was mostly filled with, well, being a train driver mostly. A slow paced film (if you've seen KITCHEN STORIES by the same director you'll know how fast it moves) but even if nothing much happens,... read more it glows iwith a reassuring demonstration that yes, there is life after 67 (should you be lucky enough to reach it) and gentle solitary lives too have their merits.
  • mingsysar
    May 29, 2009
    mingsysar
    Where's the point? It could've been the acting, directing or editing, but there was something a bit off about this film, or collection of vignettes more like. I suppose each action, situation or decision had something deep and meaningful behind it, but I'll be damned if I knew wh... read moreat it was. The whole film felt like an amateur exercise, where there are lots of ideas but they just aren't delivered. I could've done with more explanations, more obvious meaning and more characterisation, just... more.
  • Ghw12158
    July 7, 2011
    Ghw12158
    odd, like the main character here is complelling and watchable but slow & plodding the main character is fascinatinting

View All O' Horten Reviews

Critic Reviews

Roger Moore
September 23, 2009
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

It's a film whose pleasures come slowly, as we, like the title character, discover the joys he's missed. Best of all, we, like Odd the Norwegian bachelor, figure out it is never too late to start living. Full Review

Jonathan F. Richards
August 23, 2009
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com

Hamer creates a quirky, beguiling, and very funny mood piece that reflects on age, adventure, uncertainty, and humanity. Owe gives the character of Horten an off-center dignity that will suggest compa... Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
July 24, 2009
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

The whimsy is never overplayed. The peculiar isn't teased at any character's expense. Full Review

Tom Long
June 19, 2009
Tom Long, Detroit News

Pointedly strange and whimsical, O'Horten mixes the surreal with the mundane in its depiction of the retirement and eventual rebirth of a train engineer. Full Review

J. R. Jones
June 19, 2009
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Bent Hamer has proved himself an apt pupil of such deadpan comic filmmakers as Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kaurismaki. Full Review

Dan Zak
June 19, 2009
Dan Zak, Washington Post

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. Full Review

Steven Rea
June 11, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

Not quite the absurdist gem that was Bent Hamer's 2004 release, Kitchen Stories, the Norwegian director's O'Horten is nonetheless a deadpan delight. Full Review

Ty Burr
June 11, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

O'Horten is a precise, deadpan drama of slapstick existentialism -- a Bent Hamer movie, in other words. Full Review

Peter Howell
June 5, 2009
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

[Director] Hamer has a gift for observational comedy, previously demonstrated in the droll Kitchen Stories, and also for the exquisite framing of wintry images. Full Review

Stephen Cole
June 5, 2009
Stephen Cole, Globe and Mail

Filmmaker Hamer isn't being cruel here. He's trying to tell us that conquering the ridiculous is one of life's necessary joys. Full Review

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