It was probably inevitable I’d pick up the Academy Award-nominated comedy from 2001, Elling
First of all, it’s a Norwegian movie (English subtitles). Secondly, the name of the title character is a derivative of the old Viking name Erling, a name with which I have associations. And finally, it’s about people with emotional disorders. I have some connections to that field of experience as well.
The Elling of the film is a middle-aged man who suffers from agoraphobia and fainting spells. He spent his early life living with his mother, and was placed in a mental institution after her death. While in the hospital he made one friend, a big, strong fellow named Kjell Bjarne (first and middle name; Scandinavians generally use both if they have them). Kjell Bjarne is obsessed with sex and extremely foul in his language (even in subtitles). However, as we soon learn, he’s entirely innocent in terms of actual experience with women.
The two are set up in an Oslo apartment, on a trial basis, by the Norwegian social welfare system. If they can learn to function in the outside world, they are told, they’ll be given greater freedom.
Elling isn’t entirely sure he wants such freedom.
If you’re a fan of the television series, “Monk,” you’ll recognize much of the atmosphere and humor. Elling and Kjell Bjarne are not objects of ridicule, but their obsessive, counterproductive responses to situations most people take for granted produce a fair number of laughs. This is an amusing movie, rooted in realism, rather than an over-the-top farce.
For a Norwegian film, I found it blessedly free of political ax-grinding. One joke that Americans may or may not pick up on is that, although Elling is extremely puritanical in his sexual attitudes (he’s outraged when Kjell Bjarne takes up with a single, pregnant neighbor) he frequently declares his unwavering devotion to the socially free-wheeling Norwegian Liberal Party, “an infallible source of moral guidance.”
I enjoyed watching “Elling,” but can’t recommend it to our readers, mostly because of the language. There is also the conventional Scandinavian attitude toward sex outside of marriage to watch out for.
But my main disappointment is very likely an unfair one. “Elling” isn’t a documentary, and the plot has to move along, but it seemed to me Elling and Kjell Bjarne had an unrealistically easy time in their adjustment to society. I’ve never been as maladjusted as Elling, but my own experience is that healing is a two-steps-forward, one-step-back process, in which one’s attempts to move out of one’s comfort zone are unsuccessful as often as not. Learning to deal with failure is an important part of the process. Aside from one early humiliation, Elling seems to go from strength to strength.
“Elling” is worth seeing, if you’re interested in the subject matter and can handle the language and themes. Rated R.
There is also the conventional Scandinavian attitude toward sex outside of marriage to watch out for.
When did Scandinavians develop this attitude? Recently, while they were Christian, or even earlier when they were still pagan?
BTW, have you seen the trailer or read anything on a new movie with Vikings in 1000 A.D. It’s called “Valhalla Rising.” The description I read was more appealing than the trailer, but what do you think of it?
Ori: I think even the pagans had high standards for free-born women. Slaves would be different. But there was a time of what we’d call Puritanism in the 19th Century, which faded over the course of the 20th.
Phil: Nope, not familiar with it.
Kind of a repellant trailer, wasn’t it? And I think I can smell the anti-Christianity.
Yeah, the written description didn’t look the same as the trailer. I wonder which is more accurate. It’s probably too ugly a film to watch.