Odd Horten has worked as a train engineer for almost forty years and is recognized by his colleagues and superiors as being an exemplary employee. However, after being presented with an odd departing gift and an even odder retirement party, Horten is forced to live his life outside the tight quarters of his engineer compartment. Much like Odd Horten himself, O'Horten is deliberate and methodical in its approach to one man coming to terms with what life has to offer him. Director Bent Hamer allows the camera, for much of the time, to remain motionless and allows the action to play out in front of the passive eye of the lens. The characters are all immensely likeable and the scenarios that are presented, despite being unlikely, are all somehow believable. While the languid pacing may not be for all tastes, O'Horten is a journey worth taking for those willing to go on the ride.

It is better than "Kitchen Stories". Cinematography and music are superb! Some weird parts. Good characters and acting. Memorable environment. Good foreign film.

A retired railroad engineer takes a personal journey, and you will want to join him.

Nice Norwegian subtle comedy. A train driver has a life crisis as his retirement approaches

Never in anyone's wildest dreams could this be described as a comedy. The poster is the funniest thing about it! One of the slowest, most tiresome, depressing films I've ever seen, I kept thinking I must be missing something somewhere. This can't really be it. The music was sort of ok, nothing was offensive and the subtitles were easy to read, but that's as good as it got. 5/10

'O' stands for Odd, the lead characters first name, and which sort of typifies this quirky, mysterious little film.

A comedy so deadpan that it starts feeling a little too aimless and distant. O'Horten looks great and its bizarre moments make it interesting, however it lacks a little something in its ability to establish a connection with the audience.

A strange little story which leaves you smiling at the end. A movie of self discovery, never too late in life, that being the theme.

So weird, but somehow strangely awesome. A little poignant, a little crazy and a little inspiring. And pretty freaking funny.

Excellent film-making! Perfect blend of humor, sexuality, and the human condition...

Deep in the barren Hardangervidda, southern central Norway, a train thunders by every so often. What with it being difficult to track down the infrequent ski resorts, villages or even the odd wind-rustled tree around here, the area is mostly silent. It is perhaps apt, then, that O'Horten, Bent Hamer's followup to 2003's sleeper hit Kitchen Stories (Salmer Fra Kjøkkenet), reveals itself to the viewer to a series of near-mute, chiaroscuro shots of engine rooms, stations and tunnels only to suddenly explode out into the open, canyon-carved wilderness of the Hardanger Mountain Plateau. John Eric Kaada's monumental soundtrack theme bellows over the top of a train snaking its way through the flimsy piece of string that is the track, weaving in and out of the rock face with elegance and grandiose. The scale of it all plays out like a winter version of Lawrence of Arabia. The film, from start to finish, is a simple character study of Odd Horten, driver of said train, a conservative 67 year-old Norwegian man who drags behind him a life of all work and no play. He has nothing to say for himself, let alone his time on the planet. He just has to complete his last ever trip of to-ing and fro-ing between Bergen on the west coast and Oslo in the east, then he can retire into obscurity, to be forgotten, just how he'd like it. On the eve of his retirement, a misunderstanding causes him to be locked out of his own party, and so, climbing through the window of a neighbour, he is stopped by a small boy and appears to befriend him. The film then proceeds to do something totally unexpected. What is so charming, so clever and so entertaining about O'Horten is that it never stops wheeling out its endless arsenal of random events, leading some to claim it's a take on existentialism and the meaning of life. For instance, Nordahl, the small boy, is in one scene only, and he's never seen again. Bent Hamer's creation here is a series of random events that are seemingly unrelated but, in reality, all have a common link; Horten himself. The events may have happened and the time will have passed without him, but Odd goes through all this mess with us. There are no ups, no downs, nothing truly remarkable happens and yet we still never have a moment to catch our breath. Falling asleep in a sauna, walking the streets of Oslo wearing high heels, meeting a schizophrenic man who believes he can drive blindfolded, selling a boat, ski jumping, swimming with lesbians and being arrested for smoking a pipe in the middle of Gardermoen airport taxiway; you name it, Odd's been there. Never taking itself too seriously (or seriously at all for that matter), O'Horten plods along from A to Z without any revelations, without drama, without a denouement. What's more, set to the backdrop of urban Oslo (and John Eric Kaada's simply breathtaking score), it barely has any style to speak of. It's not colourful or visually thrilling, but it has something found in all Hamer films - comedic timing. It's got humour by the bucketloads, taking aim at anything from the bizarre, true-to life shortness with which the Norwegians address each other to the totally ridiculous instances of a man's ice-maker flooding his house with ice cubes, two characters starting a conversation with "Can you believe Nissan is Japanese?" "... It certainly doesn't sound Japanese." "Maybe if it were Swedish..." O'Horten is, at heart, a beautiful, heartfelt celebration of humankind; a reminder that life is interesting and exciting without car chases, without murder, without anything really happening at all. Life is entertaining even at its dullest moments, and while some may find this excruciatingly scrutinised vision of the passing time dull or lacking in bite, to me, Bent Hamer has created a sly little comedy using nothing more than the natural humour of, well, people. What they say, how they act, what they do and why. Nothing more, nothing less; whatever goes, goes, and from where the viewer is standing, the film is often heavily unbalanced, completely unstructured and the narrative is totally baffling, but hey, that fits the story, right? We wouldn't have it any other way.

Sweet-natured and entertaining character study. Like a Norwegian ABOUT SCHMIDT, kind of.

I look forward to seeing world cinema on BBC4 and CH4 in the UK and this was no exception, although as I watched this film I wondered why I was bothering, but the strangest thing happened, after several weeks I am still thinking about the film and feel the need to watch it again, its warm melancholy is infectious stuff.

Strange and seemingly pointless tale of a man retiring, but the production does have endearing qualities.

This movie covers the stark meanderings of a recently retired train driver. It all seems a pretty pointless excuse to film one or two mildly amusing scenes such as people sliding on black ice and a malfuntioning ice machine. The lead character manages to fall asleep in a strange child's bedroom and a sauna. Slow, quirky and boring

Odd. meandering, charming and beautifully disarming.

Had the potentional to be a much more better movie.

Slow burning, thoughtful movie. No grand gestures or set pieces - just consistently good acting and beautiful photography. There is not one malicious or tense scene in this film - it oozes warmth and appealing characters.

Not as funny as I expected it to be. It follows a train driver Odd Horten who on his retirement gets into a series of minor mishaps and meets some surreal eccentric folks when his daily routine of waking up and going to work is shattered. An encounter with one man inspires Horten to start making some life changes that may enrich his life during his retirement. The main problem with this movie is it has inextricable stretches that lead nowhere in particular (although perhaps they mean more if you're Norwegian). Baard Owe plays Horten with a quiet, soft-spoken assurance. The director's pacing is also very deliberate, which mostly serves this quiet observational comedy but also almost begins to wear out its welcome. There are a couple of funny moments such as when Horten's nude swim at the pool is interrupted by 2 lesbians and he has to scarper out of there wearing women's high heels! Overall though, this is a bit of a hit and miss comedy and some might even find it a bit dull. I recommend this movie only for those who like unique comedies.

Not as funny as I expected it to be. It follows a train driver Odd Horten who on his retirement gets into a series of minor mishaps and meets some surreal eccentric folks when his daily routine of waking up and going to work is shattered. An encounter with one man inspires Horten to start making some life changes that may enrich his life during his retirement. The main problem with this movie is it has inextricable stretches that lead nowhere in particular (although perhaps they mean more if you're Norwegian). Baard Owe plays Horten with a quiet, soft-spoken assurance. The director's pacing is also very deliberate, which mostly serves this quiet observational comedy but also almost begins to wear out its welcome. There are a couple of funny moments such as when Horten's nude swim at the pool is interrupted by 2 lesbians and he has to scarper out of there wearing women's high heels! Overall though, this is a bit of a hit and miss comedy and some might even find it a bit dull. I recommend this movie only for those who like unique comedies.