Take a chance, friends

There’s a quirky, quiet, charming movie in KC just for this week. No one is shot, stabbed or blown up. There are no steamy sex scenes. There’s no one in it you ever heard of. And it’s in Norsk, with subtitles.

Go see it anyway, you want something sweet, intelligent, offbeat and entirely unlike anything at the gigantoplex.

The movie is “O’ Horton.” I saw it Sunday night with a sparse crowd at the Tivoli. It’s a subtle, subtle comedy with some touching moments of drama, playing off the jarring mix of the seriously mundane and the surreal. Horton is a steady-as-they-get guy – a Norwegian rail engineer at the time of his retirement – who still thinks of what life might have held and perhaps could yet. He has a way of finding himself in bizarre, amusing situations. The highest compliment I could give it is this: I’d pay to watch it again. (The last movie I did that for was “Michael Clayton.”)

Here’s the thing: Some of my favorite movies of the last few years – “Run, Baby, Run” and “RocknRolla” spring to mind – have come from the fringe of my gotta-see list. Yes, you will occasionally sit through a dreary “Feast of Love” or “Babel,” but there are rewards. On a lovely Sunday night last fall, I was headed toward the Plaza, debating whether to see or skip “Rachel Getting Married.” I finally went. It was the best movie of the year. Take a chance, friends.

As we were leaving Sunday night, my friend said, Can you imagine the pitch for this in Hollywood? You have this guy. There’s like no dialogue for 10 minutes. And then ... That project wouldn’t make it past the first lunch. Thank goodness for the Norwegian film board. Who knew?