Join us for dinner at 6, the movie at 7, and discussion afterwards.

The movie, directed by Hannes Holm, manages to fuse melodrama with dark comedy and — no small feat — make it work.

The action unfolds both in the present and in the past. The knowledge that audiences are given in the flashbacks allows them to reassess the protagonist, thus supporting the film’s underlying theme about the unreliability of first impressions; as one would expect, there is heroism and genuine goodness lying beneath his prickly exterior. Nevertheless, upon first encounter, Ove (played by Rolf Lassgard in the present, Filip Berg as a young man and Viktor Baagoe as a boy) comes off as one of those annoying, nosy souls found everywhere in the world, the ones who assiduously obey all written instructions and tell you to do so, too.