I Don’t Think I’ve Ever Cried So Much During a Movie

I’ve admitted before to being brought to tears fairly frequently, and for a variety of reasons and emotions. Oftentimes it’s music that triggers the tears, but today it was a movie.

What made the tears even more surprising to me was that I already knew the story, since I had read the book that the movie was based on. Since I had cried while reading the book, I thought I might be immune from such a reaction while watching the movie.

As it turned out, I think I was crying for literally 80% of the movie. Just when I thought I had it under control, something would happen in the movie, and the tears would start flowing again.

The book/movie is “A Man Called Ove”, and if you’re not familiar with the storyline, here’s a brief synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes (which gave it a 93% critics’ rating and 87% audience rating):

Stepping from the pages of Fredrik Backman’s international best-selling novel, Ove is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. Enter a boisterous young family next door who accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox while moving in and earning his special brand of ire. Yet from this inauspicious beginning an unlikely friendship forms and we come to understand Ove’s past happiness and heartbreaks. What emerges is a heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and the gentle reminder that life is sweeter when it’s shared.

The movie is set, and filmed, in Sweden, and uses subtitles. Here’s the trailer:

It’s not that the movie is overly sad, it’s just that many of the scenes got to me, for whatever reason. There were some humorous scenes, some triumphant scenes, some feel-good scenes, and of course, some sad scenes.

It was one of the best movies I’ve seen since Begin Again, which is one of my all-time favorites.

I highly recommend both the book and movie; which doesn’t happen very often.

Just be sure to bring some tissues.