The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Dissappeared Film Screening Invite

I was absolutely thrilled to be invited to a preview screening of The One Hundred Year Old Man at the Soho Hotel in London.

What's it about?

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not - Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan's earlier life in which - remarkably - he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century.

Review

I read the book for The One Hundred Year Old Man when it was released back in 2011 and loved it, so was very keen to see the movie adaptation and it did not disappoint!

I had never been to the Soho Hotel before, but it was really easy to find and it was a lovely hotel. I met my friend Zarina there and we headed down into one of the hotels movie screening rooms, which again another first for me. I met Kelly from Compelling Reads and Vicky from Books Biscuits and Tea there for the first time as well so it was lovely to see them!

I can honestly say the film was brilliant. Despite it being a two hour long film, the time whizzed by as I was enjoying it so much. It managed to stay true to the book, only missing out a couple of things, but if they had put everything in, I think it would have ended up being a four hour film! 

I had found the book quite funny, but seeing it played out on screen, I found it hilarious and it got lots of belly laughs from me and other people in the audience.

What I found quite unusual but actually worked well, was that the main characters all spoke in Swedish, but the voice over was in English, and when we flick back to Allan's past and he goes to all these different countries, the character's speak in that country's native language and you obviously still get the subtitles. It just gave the film a nice kind of uniqueness and reflected Allan's travels throughout his life.

If you haven't yet read the book, I definitely recommend you read that and then see the film, but that's just the way round I like to do it. So if the book doesn't appeal then definitely go see the film this summer.

4/5