The Bothersome Man (2007)
70 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 14 Rotten:6 Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus:
Bothersome Man is a surreal, comedic meditation, thoughtfully and skillfully made.
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 24, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Andreas (42) awakens on a bus. He has no idea where he comes from nor where he’s going. The bus pulls up at a run-down bus stop, where a friendly little man greets him and drives him into town in a small car. Everything has been prepared for his arrival: a job, clothes and an apartment. But something... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Trond Fausa Aurvag, Petronella Barker, Per Schanning, Birgitte Larsen, Johannes Joner
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date)
This absurdist black comedy from Norway is unlike any other movie you’ll see this year, but as allegory, it’s a bit too literal-minded.
Comment
01/18/08
Like the Swedish/Norwegian Kitchen Stories, it's a thoughtful Scandinavian film with a bent sense of humor.
09/21/07
Is it a religious allegory? Political statement? Horror film? Perhaps all three, perhaps none.
09/21/07
This is a bizarre social satire that mixes the mild-mannered humor of Jacques Tati with stunningly gory slapstick.
09/20/07
Top Critic
If only all the production elements added up to great movie. Instead, they seem like window dressing on a sill looking out to nowhere.
09/06/07
Bothersome Man is a stark yet strangely lyrical, multi-layered dirge for the absurdity of human fate in the face of figuratively deadening social conformity, and on the other hand, literal mortality.
09/03/07
An absurdly funny dystopian allegory that can proudly hold its own next to Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 and Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
08/29/07
A deliberate, thought-provoking, existential meditation on the curse of creating a neverending heaven on Earth.
08/25/07
A surreal nightmare of gleaming surfaces and razor-sharp edges, The Bothersome Man unfolds in a sterile city where nothing is quite as it seems.
08/24/07
Top Critic
Director Jens Lien mostly favors the clean and bland, succumbing to much of the same pod-person impassivity that the movie purports to critique.
08/21/07
Top Critic
There are several ways to take this bothersome trifle, none of which are at all resonant.
08/09/07
It's a delectable premise, rendered with smooth efficiency but we never really get beneath the surface of this shallow parallel reality.
06/02/07
This Ikea-furnished existential crisis marks Lien out as a talent to watch for the future.
06/02/07
A few flaws but this is visually captivating and psychologically disturbing.
05/25/07
Made with formidable assurance, a compelling look, quiet skill and impressive economy.
03/15/07
Top Critic
A dark, nasty little movie that's never quite as deep or as clever as it imagines itself to be.
09/23/06
Top Critic1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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