SnoopyStyle Odd Horton is dependable and cautious Norwegian train engineer facing retirement. His fellow train workers throw him a big retirement party. He gets locked out of his own party and tries to sneak back in climbing up a scaffolding. He finds a boy who asks him to stay while he sleeps. He oversleeps and misses his train. It's a series of disjointed rambling situations leading him to reconsider his life. As a character, Odd Horten lacks any charisma. It starts off slowly. When it turns strange, the movie lost me. I would rather it go crazy. I couldn't really follow him down the rabbit hole. The movie is well-made and it aims to be profound. I don't hate the attempt but it's not for me.

writers_reign The consensus here at IMDb seems to be that this is a fine effort and I'll go along with that. Because I know nothing of Norway, the Norwegian people and/or culture it would be reasonably easy to go along with the surreal aspects of Bent Hamer's film and take it at face value but common sense kicks in and says that it is unlikely in the extreme that so many odd balls would cross the path of Odd Horten in so short a time. On the plus side there is no attempt to rationalise (for example) the young boy who, far from being fazed to find a strange old man outside his bedroom, asks the man to sit with him until he falls asleep - this, of course, in a world where we see paedophiles under the bed. If, however, you can get past this then you will think nothing of the chef being led away in handcuffs in front of diners in a restaurant followed by the waiter announcing 'for obvious reasons I will not be taking any further orders for food' and life just going on. These are but two slightly bizarre moments in a film studded with them so you can take it or leave it. For the record I took it.

thecatcanwait Watched this in the summer and was bored by it. Lets try again.Odd Horten. A 67 year old pipe smoking train driver about to retire. Lights up pipe. Taciturn. Sucks on pipe. Reticent. Puffs on pipe. Expressionless.Has he got a daft sense of humour? No. A wacky hobby? No. A naughty sex life? No. Has he got any inner life at all? Er, no.The lighting and puffing of this pipe. Is about as interesting as Odd is going to get.The acting is deliberately doggedly dull. The actor is doggedly dull too. Too dull. Distinct lack of oddness.I need some quirk. Eventually some quirk comes. A dry kind of daftness."All my friends jumped but not me. And now its too late" laments Odd. "It seems most things come too late in life".Well, its never too late. To make that (ski) jump.He jumped (of course) Maybe I've only watched this cus its a Norwegian film. And it's December. And i needed to see some lonely snowy winter.What was this film? A tribute to the Everyman – or in this case a Norwegian Nobody.It fell as flat as Bent Hamers other film, that misfiring dud Kitchen Stories.A lot of pipe smoking in that too.

johno-21 This was among my favorites of films I saw at the 2009 Palm Springs International Film Festival. From Norwegian writer/director Bent Hamer this a wonderfully quirky and surrealistic dry comedy. Odd Horten (Baard Owe) is a button down, dedicated locomotive conductor who at the age of 67 is making his final run before retirement. He is unmarried but has an opportunity for romance and a possible wife to share his retirement years with but he is unsure of how to adapt to retirement after a long dedicated career that took him from coal trains to super speed electric rail travel. You meet a delightful variety of characters in this character driven film. Like his name of Odd, he is an odd eccentric, always very proper in dress and mannerism and he constantly finds himself in odd situations. We also meet his aging nursing home bound mother, a special lady friend, his fellow locomotive drivers who throw a retirement party for him, a tavern keeper, the wife of his tobacconist, a man who wants to buy his boat and many more throughout this strangely wonderful film. Veteran actor Espen Skjonberg plays a retired diplomat who befriends Odd in the middle of the night. Skjonberg is great in this role and it's a great role in itself that leads to a series of the some of the film's more memorable scenes. Owe is fantastic in a role in which he basically has very little to do with very little range of emotion but it works. This film is like some Norwegian acid trip. I would give it an 9.0 out of 10 and recommend it.