GFF 2014: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (Felix Herngren, 2013)

For the most part, we’ve left mainstream comedy films to the Yanks. Veering towards grandiose affairs of humourless slapstick, or a smartly written, well acted features, they rarely meet anywhere in the middle. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared is an example of a film doing just that.

On his one hundredth birthday, Allan climbs out of his window in a care home he reluctantly lives in. Intent on escaping to somewhere new and alone, he takes the bus to a small, almost non existent town, meeting people along the way. As the police start to track down his whereabouts, he leads a life of inadvertent crime, innately telling stories of his past on the way.

Although it lends a lot to the likes of Forrest Gump, The 100-Year-Old Man is simply a warm, well intended film to watch. It doesn’t try to involve needless backstories (apart from his past, obviously, which isn’t necessary but a beautiful anecdote that runs through it), but sets forward on this story that shows comedy holds no language.

It may stretch out a little, at nearly two hours long, but The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is a joyously comic film that has its heart in exactly the right place.