‘Do you need to rot away in an outdated armchair?” asks Filip Hammar, a Swedish TV presenter, speaking to his dad. On this charming, typically hilarious documentary, Hammar takes 80-year-old Lars on a street journey to the south of France; the thought is to rekindle Lars’s spark, shake a little bit of life again into him. Since retiring as a French instructor, Lars has been sitting round at house, steadily extra depressed and frail. Hammar desires to indicate his dad that life is value dwelling. However as you’d count on from a documentary this heart-warming, Hammar has a lesson or two to study himself.
For the journey, Hammar has purchased a knackered outdated Renault 4, the identical automotive the household had when he was a child. Their vacation spot is the house they rented each summer season vacation (judging from the outdated photographs, this was pre-factor 50 sunscreen; everybody was a furious shade of lobster). Father and son are joined by Hammar’s finest mate Fredrik Wikingsson, one other TV presenter. The 2 are a fixture on Swedish telly; like Ant and Dec they arrive as a pair, Filip och Fredrik. Their straightforward, lived-in banter jollies the whole lot alongside.
The journey is sort of over earlier than it begins, when Lars falls going for a pee at evening in a resort. However Lars is a life-long Francophile, and slowly, slowly, slightly of the outdated charisma creeps again in as the vacation will get into swing. It’s not fairly sufficient for Hammar, who’s determined to get his outdated dad again. (So determined he hires actors to create the proper French expertise for Lars.) There’s a heartbreaking scene when Hammar persuades his dad to prepare dinner his outdated speciality, ratatouille. However poor Lars can barely slice an aubergine.
Hammar’s love for his dad, how a lot he treasures his childhood, is extremely touching. There’s a easy, profound message right here for folks – you get out what you set in. And the scene on the finish, exhibiting simply what an affect Lars had on his college students, would squeeze a tear out of granite.