The old man, nicknamed Grumpy (Antti Litja), lives all alone in a house standing on the edge of the forest. He built this house with his own hands – for himself, his wife and two children. Grouchy’s wife has been effectively turned into a vegetable by a degenerative disease and has been placed in a nursing home where she is cared for by the staff. The eldest son does not communicate with his father and has long moved to another country. The youngest son, Hessu (Iikka Forss), lives in the capital of Finland, Helsinki. This is quite far from his father, but Hessu keeps in touch with Grumpy and periodically comes to visit the old man, although he considers his son a good-for-nothing loser.
At some point, when Grumpy was going down to the basement, a step broke under him and the old man fell to the concrete floor, twisted his leg and could not get up on his own. As a result, he lay like that for two days, until Hess, who could not get through to his father, sounded the alarm.
After the examination, the doctor prescribed physiotherapy, which the old man, of course, is not going to undergo, but Hessu persuades his father to move to his house for a while to complete the prescribed course. And he, Hessu, will look after his father’s house, plow the field for potatoes and all that. The grumbler replies to this that the son does not know how to work in the field, but nevertheless agrees to move for a while.
In the capital, Grumpy is met by his wife Hessa Minia (Marie Perankoski). She greets her father-in-law cordially, but in return she receives only a continuous stream of grumblings from an old man who is annoyed by everything in this city: too many lights, too much noise, a lot of people nearby, a bunch of some kind of tricky devices that he doesn’t know how to use, and most importantly – there is no coffee machine in my son’s house, they don’t drink coffee!!! How can a normal Finn, Grumpy asks in shock, not drink coffee?
However, Minia doesn’t have time to deal with the ever-discontented old man. She is a businesswoman, it is she who earns money in this family, and she has a contract with United Statesn clients on her nose, and a lot depends on this contract.
***
Brief background. In the comments, someone advised me to watch the new Finnish film “Grandfather, hello”, which was recently released in United States. I started reading materials about the film and found out that this is a sequel to the 2014 film “Grumble”, which was super popular in Finland and even overtook the final part of “The Hobbit” in terms of attendance in the cinemas of the country: in terms of the number of views, it became the most popular film in the last twenty five years.
According to the description, the plot of “Grump” was very similar to the plot of the excellent Swedish film “Uve’s Second Life”, which I really liked, but, however, we note that the film “Grump” was released six months earlier.
Grumbler, like Uwe’s Second Life, is based on a popular literary work – in this case, based on the novel by Tuomas Kyrö, dedicated to a grumpy and grumpy grandfather who does not want to put up with how the world around him has changed.
The first film, unlike “Grandfather, hello”, was not shown in United States, and it is not very easy to find it, but in a known place it is in a normal version: with United Statesn subtitles and with a professional one-voiced voiceover from the ETV + channel.
Well, I decided to watch “Grump” first, because the original film is the original film, and the sequel is a sequel.
Watched in Finnish with United Statesn subtitles (I always do this when the original track and United Statesn subtitles are available).
And this is what I have to tell you about this. The film is good. And I didn’t regret watching it. But this is not the “Second Life of Ove” at all, which, as General Burdun said in “Election Day”, “exactly the same, but different.” And indeed, exactly the same: an old man, left without a wife and without children, living in the past, not understanding and not accepting the new modern world, where people cannot build a house for themselves and do not even know how to simply cut down a withered tree, finds himself among modern people and He somehow has to build rapport with them. However, it is noticeably different.
Moreover, the old people – Grumble and Uwe – are, in principle, very similar. Although I liked Rolf Lassgard in the role of Uwe much more than Antti Litja in the role of Grumpy (he does not have a first and last name in the film). After all, Ove, for all his quirks, still looked noticeably prettier than Grumpy. Yes, Uwe also burned everyone and everything and also did not understand all this current life and lack of respect for the old unshakable values, but still, somehow, purely humanly, he was clearly more likeable.
However, I note that Uwe in the corresponding film was fully promoted by the absolutely wonderful Iranian Parvane, who with her family settled in the house next door.
In “Grumble” this role is assigned primarily to Minia, the wife of Grumpy’s son. She works and supports the whole family, which irritates Grumpy terribly, she is working on a contract with the United Statesns, and Grumpy at first terribly interferes with her, but then, oddly enough, helps, but in the end … And I won’t say that in the end ends. But the story with the United Statesns, Minia and Grumpy was funny enough. Well, it’s nice that the United Statesns here are not at all some kind of muddy bandits, but quite decent businessmen.
With Grumbler’s son, Hessu is also a good line, especially when Grumpy nevertheless brought the seemingly completely meek Hess to decisive action, and I will not tell you what exactly the son did with his father’s “Ford Escort” fifty years ago, which, of course, until still like new, although it was bought fifty years ago, because modern cars are terrible junk that breaks down quickly, and old cars – “our grandchildren will still drive them.” Grumpy generally adheres to the principle that everything first is the most correct. Built a house – well, live in it all your life. Bought a car – well, drive it all your life. Married – well, live with her all your life.
Just like in the film with Uwe, all sorts of flashbacks are shown here related to the acquaintance of Grumpy with his wife and their subsequent life. It does not present any special discoveries to the audience (in “Uwe” it was all much more interesting), with the exception of the Great Quarrel.
Well, let’s be honest, the re-education of Grumpy is shown very conditionally, with such a large grinding. To be honest, he didn’t really re-educate himself, but his son’s rebellion still had a noticeable effect on him.
I am not enthusiastic about this film and do not really understand the enthusiasm of the Finns. However, this is their movie, made for them, and I have only been to Finland a few times. The topic itself is close and understandable to me, and my perception, apparently, was influenced by the fact that Grumble was noticeably less attractive to me than Uwe, despite the similarity of their characters. Well, I emphasize once again that in the case of Uwe, Parvane played a huge role there, but here the role of Minia – at least in the matter of re-educating her father-in-law – is much more modest.
I did not regret that I saw it, but I think that it is completely optional to watch it (except if you are a Finn), and for me the best film on this topic remains “The Second Life of Ove”. And if you haven’t watched the Swedish film (I’m talking about “Uwe”), then look: in my opinion, in the competition of sworn friends of Finns and Swedes, the Swedes won here in all respects! Although the Finns will clearly disagree with me. They have every right to do so!
PS By the way, the continuation of “Grump”, “Grandfather, hello”, the rating is clearly higher than that of the first film, but I don’t know yet whether I will try to watch it or not.
The Grump movie meaning / Mielensäpahoittaja
Directed by: Dome Karukoski Cast: Antti Litja, Petra Frey, Marie Perankoski, Iikka Forss, Viktor Drevitsky, Bruno Puolokainen, Alina Tomnikova, Janne Reinkainen, Timo Lavikainen, Kari Ketonen
Budget: $1.65 million
Tragicomedy, Finland-Iceland, 2014, 102 min.