A gentle comedy about an extraordinary friendship between two socially-unprepared 40-year-olds.
Small, shy Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) lived with his mother all his live, and after her death, unable to live on his own, he was placed in a mental clinic. He shared a room there with Kjell Bjarne (Sven Nordin), little mentally-disabled, unclean thug who dreamed mostly about food and women. After a few years of therapy both of the so different men are, in the means of resocialization, placed in a common flat, where they are supposed to begin a normal live. And it isn't easy...
A funny film, in which comical attitude comes out of the relations between so the totally different characters (Elling is a grumpy, neurotic intelligent while Kjell Bjarne - good-natured, bear-like strongman). But not only that - the remarks of these social outsiders about out everyday reality are surprisingly precise. They make us see its "under-skinned" absurd. Making movies about "the abnormal" is quite difficult. You have to be wary about not to be too protective, not to be to cheap in feeling, and not to make an easy joke. The Norwegian director was able to dodge all those traps. He told this strange story in a very natural way. It is fresh and very tasty.
Small, shy Elling (Per Christian Ellefsen) lived with his mother all his live, and after her death, unable to live on his own, he was placed in a mental clinic. He shared a room there with Kjell Bjarne (Sven Nordin), little mentally-disabled, unclean thug who dreamed mostly about food and women. After a few years of therapy both of the so different men are, in the means of resocialization, placed in a common flat, where they are supposed to begin a normal live. And it isn't easy...
A funny film, in which comical attitude comes out of the relations between so the totally different characters (Elling is a grumpy, neurotic intelligent while Kjell Bjarne - good-natured, bear-like strongman). But not only that - the remarks of these social outsiders about out everyday reality are surprisingly precise. They make us see its "under-skinned" absurd. Making movies about "the abnormal" is quite difficult. You have to be wary about not to be too protective, not to be to cheap in feeling, and not to make an easy joke. The Norwegian director was able to dodge all those traps. He told this strange story in a very natural way. It is fresh and very tasty.