En man som heter Ove (Hannes Holm, 2015)

A Man Called Ove centres around a recently widowed man who's also then forced into early retirement, and sets about trying to join his departed wife. He then fails at every varied suicide attempt, in a manner strongly echoing Jean-Pierre Leaud in Kaurismäki's I Hired a Contract Killer. So, this is a black comedy in the Scandinavian mould, but since it's also primarily in the rapidly-growing genre of fiction to do with the elderly not being allowed to go out quietly, from The Bucket List onwards, positivity creeps in very soon through his persistently cheery neighbours and his rather amusingly misanthropic and curmudgeonly ways are blunted. Thankfully, this wasn't Hollywood, since he's still allowed to retain some of his grumpy essence and hence the conclusion never becomes too cloyingly sentimental, so it remains a pleasant, unpatronising experience as a whole. That said, apparently it is being remade with Tom Hanks in the role. God help us.

6/10