There's much that is worryingly familiar about the Swedish hit and the country's Foreign Language Oscar candidate, A Man Called Ove.
Our titular guy spends much of his time talking to the headstone of his late wife; He keeps on attempting suicide, only for life to intrude on his deathwish; He's another movie curmudgeon who has his heart melted by exposure to children or those in need of his deep-buried compassion or wisdom.
![A scene from the film, A Man Called Ove.](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/GKIJ76O2TOWPFICRJB6WHD2VRQ.jpg?auth=6adba869a33cff0ca28b2dea47adf33f9381d47cb59988b002340f77800bdab4&width=16&height=9&quality=70&smart=true)
But despite all that, Ove is still a winning combo of black comedy and melancholic melodrama with a Scandinavian twist or three.
There are not many films that include a running debate on the relative merits of Volvo v Saab and give a through-the-decades history of the marques.