Grumpy old man harasses his community in the charming "A Man Called Ove"

Like a hybrid of Bad Santa's Billy Bob Thornton and Dickens' everlasting miser Ebenezer Scrooge, the lead character in A Man Called Ove is obnoxious as he is rude.  Barking at pretty much every member of his tight-knit little Swedish community over cars being driven on forbidden roads, dogs peeing at inappropriate places, and even hating his long-time neighbor for choosing to buy a foreign car over domestically produced ones, the widower Ove finds out that this "hell" of a neighborhood won't even let him die peacefully.  He tries to kill himself several times, several different ways, but alas, he always ends up being interrupted by his inconsiderate fellow residents, and therefore lives to die another day.  As we watch Ove's youth in his self-narrated flashbacks, we see him meet his wife for the first time as a young man, his adolescence so odd and quirky that he gives the impression of a Scandinavian Forrest Gump.  The last act of A Man Called Ove feels a bit forced and sugar coated, but that predictability isn't necessarily a deal-breaker.  Lead actor Rolf Lassgard gives the protagonist of Fredrik Backman's famous novel a unique, understated charm that hides deep within his rough and mean old-man exterior.  It's a story that's been done before, but never quite with a combatant wanting to die this badly.
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