Welcome back to Movie Recaps.
Today I will show you a drama, fantasy film from 2006, titled The Bothersome Man.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
In a subway station, Andreas Ramsfjell watches a couple kiss.
It is a weird kiss, very methodical and with no passion in it, as if they were doing it
because they must and not because they enjoy it.
After thinking about it for a moment, Andreas decides to jump on the track as he remembers
how this all got started.
Many weeks ago, in the middle of the desert, an old man hangs a welcome sign on an abandoned
gas station right before a bus arrives.
This bus drops a scruffy-looking Andreas, who has no idea what is going on.
Now that Andreas is here, the old man takes the sign off then drives the newcomer to the
city while making mindless small talk.
The area is clean and perfectly peaceful, perhaps too much so.
Andreas is given an apartment of his own and a job as an accountant before he is left to
his own devices for the night.
Exploring the apartment does not take long since it is small and only has the bare necessities,
not even the smallest decoration, although it does include some clothing as well, even
if they are very simple suits.
Andreas shaves off his beard before going to bed so he looks better for his first day
at work.
The next morning, he goes to work at a prestigious company, where he meets a few of his coworkers
and is given some money to get him started before he is shown to his office.
Like his apartment, the office is small and only has the bare necessities, so Andreas
spends the day punching numbers.
He only takes a break to have lunch, for which he goes to a bench near the office.
On his way back, he notices something disturbing in a house across the street: the body of
a man stuck in the railing of an apartment building.
Nobody in the area seems to care, they all continue with their lives as a group of Cleaners
come by to remove the body without showing any care either, they just treat it like a
bag of trash to be taken out.
When Andreas returns to his office a moment later and looks through the window, the railing
has already been cleaned and there is no trace of anything strange happening there.
After work is over, Andreas goes to a bar, but he does not have a very good time drinking
by himself.
When he goes to the bathroom, he complains about the alcohol in this place being watered
down because it has had no effect on him whatsoever.
The man on the floor next to him disagrees, saying it has always been like this, but a
voice from behind a stall door does agree.
This voice thinks nothing tastes right, be alcohol, chocolate, or women.
Their talk is interrupted when more men walk in, but afterward, Andreas tries to follow
the man from the stall when he leaves the bar.
He sees him enter a building and turn on the light in one of the basement apartments, from
which delightful music comes out.
Andreas begins living in a boring and mindless routine of just working and having dinner
that tastes like nothing in front of the tv.
One afternoon, he decides he wants to shake things up a little and feel something different,
so he lets the paper cutter hurt his finger.
When his coworkers come to check on him, they do not seem to be disturbed at the fact he
has lost a finger, they just ask him why he is sitting on the floor.
Andreas passes out from blood loss and wakes up a few moments later with his hand bandaged
up in the back of a car belonging to the Cleaners, who do not engage with Andreas' attempt at
small talk and drop him at his apartment without a word.
When Andreas goes to the bathroom to take off the bandage and clean the wound, he is
shocked to discover his finger is back and well without even a scar.
With a desperate need to get answers, the next day Andreas drives to the abandoned gas
station in the desert and watches the man put up the sign to welcome a new person.
When the bus begins driving away, Andreas follows it in his car, but he quickly loses
sight of it so there is nowhere for him to go.
Andreas goes back to work and finds his boss in his office, reminding him that they want
him to be happy.
They allow Andreas to ask for anything he needs, be a new computer or a new chair, and
he can take as much time as needed for his lunch break.
However, Andreas turns him down and assures him he is fine.
Today he decides to have lunch in the company's cafeteria and joins the table his coworkers
are at instead of eating alone.
He manages to fit in by joining a conversation about furniture, and this earns him an invitation
to a dinner party.
After work, Andreas goes shopping for some nice clothes and a bottle of wine, and walks
by the window belonging to the man from the bar.
He tries to hear the music again, but when he comes too close, a pair of Cleaners comes
by and calls him out for his weird behavior.
Later in the evening, during the dinner party, Andreas meets Anne Britt, an interior designer.
The two of them hit it off and agree to go on a date sometime.
When dinner is over, Andreas walks her home, and they end up spending the night together.
Now that his life is starting to improve, Andreas is in a better mood.
He buys a plant for his office desk, gets a nicer car, and moves in with Anne.
The couple works together on a big project to redecorate the whole house, and when they
are finished, they throw their own dinner party for their friends.
The good mood does not last long though.
Soon Andreas is back in a boring routine.
Chats with friends are always small talk about furniture, his nights with Anne are performative,
not passionate; and all she can talk about is redecorating the house.
One night, Andreas can not sleep so he makes some nothing-tasting coffee, and when Anne
checks on him, he tries to tell her about his nightmare.
However, Anne says she does not want him to talk like that, and goes back to the subject
of the house.
Some days later, Andreas begins paying more attention to his coworker Ingeborg and decides
to ask her out.
After calling Anne and telling her he has to work extra hours, Andreas takes Ingeborg
to the movie theatre.
The film is rather sad but he is the only one crying, although at least Ingeborg rests
her head on his shoulder.
Afterward, Andreas drives Ingeborg home and asks if she would be ok with fooling around
with him while he continues to live with Anne.
Ingeborg accepts, and they end up making out.
Andreas and Ingeborg begin having a secret affair, although they think it would be nice
not to have to hide.
One afternoon, tired of these boring hours spent with Anne in front of the tv, Andreas
tells her he has met someone else and he wants to break up.
Anne does not look bothered though, she just asks him to wait until Saturday to move out
because they are having guests that day.
Once the dinner party passes, Andreas goes to visit Ingeborg, surprising her with flowers
and a special reservation at a very nice restaurant that will open its doors just for them.
Andreas informs her he has left Anne, but Ingeborg does not look excited - in fact,
she looks confused because she did not think they were in a serious relationship.
Ingeborg is seeing other guys too, so Andreas asks her to dump them and come live with him.
She says she would not mind doing so, but she does not sound enthusiastic about it,
it is more like she is just going with the flow.
Andreas tries to make her admit she likes him more or that he is more special than the
others, but Ingeborg just keeps repeating all her boyfriends are the same to her.
Feeling stuck in a conversation that sounds more like a broken record, Andreas leaves
the restaurant without finishing his dinner.
This is how the story goes back to the beginning.
After watching the couple kiss and understanding he will never have passion again in his life,
Andreas jumps ahead and waits for a few trains to pass.
However, after three hits, he still doesn't get want he wants.
The stations eventually close, and now that he gets to rest a few hours, Andreas gathers
energy and strength to follow the light at the end of the tunnel and returns to the city.
The Cleaners find him and take him home without a word or even attempting to take care of
his wounds.
When Anne sees him, she does not react either, just tells him they have been invited to go
karting with friends.
Feeling resigned, Andreas accepts.
A few days later, after drinking alone at the bar again, Andreas remembers the guy from
the stall and tries to find him.
He can hear lovely music coming out from his window again, so he climbs the side of the
building to get into a back corridor and reach the basement, where he finally meets the guy,
whose name is Hugo.
Andreas has to convince Hugo to let him in because his new friend is scared to get in
trouble for what he has inside his little room: a painting, a ceiling filled with lightbulbs,
and a hole on the wall where the music comes from.
After promising he will keep the secret, Andreas is allowed to stay and listen to the music
with Hugo.
The next day, Andreas is distracted at work, which gets his boss' attention and makes him
check on him.
However, when Andreas begins talking about missing the real taste of chocolate and seeing
children around, his boss is weirded out and leaves.
Still determined not to give up, Andreas tells Anne he will be working late and begins spending
his evenings in Hugo's room, making the hole bigger with various tools to hopefully escape.
At first, Hugo is against it because it will get them caught, but when a lovely smell starts
coming out of the hole too, Hugo decides to help.
The hole eventually becomes a tunnel, and Andreas and Hugo like to sit in it and have
coffee while listening to the music and hearing the adorable sound of kids laughing.
One morning, Andreas goes to work only to find out he has been replaced with a new person.
His boss tells him it is not firing him but inspiring him to find a new career, yet when
Andreas leaves the building, he sees cleaners waiting for him outside.
Not wanting to get caught, Andreas goes back inside and leaves through the backdoor instead.
Now Andreas has all the time in the world to work on the tunnel, which becomes so big
that even the neighbors begin smelling the lovely aroma and hear the music that comes
out of it.
They come to knock at Hugo's door, so he sends them away saying they are fixing a leak, but
this only causes the neighbors to gather around the window outside.
Eventually, they reach the end of the tunnel and the wall the hole is actually on.
Andreas inserts his hand through it and it comes out in a beautiful, colorful bright
house with the sound of children playing outside echoing in its walls.
Andreas' hand is waved around and he manages to grab some freshly baked cake, which he
proceeds to eat and marvel at how delicious it tastes.
He is so in love with this cake that he barely reacts when Cleaners finally arrive to take
him and Hugo away.
A few moments later, Hugo is allowed to leave, but the Cleaners take Andreas to meet the
city leaders, who tell him people are happy there and they are proud of that.
Afterward, the old man comes to pick up Andreas and a pair of Cleaners in his car while a
different group of Cleaners seals the hole in the basement and cleans everything so it
looks like nothing happened.
Andreas is taken back to the abandoned gas station and when the bus comes by to drop
off a new person, the Cleaners put Andreas inside the luggage compartment.
While Andreas is taken away, life continues as normal in the city: both Anne and Ingeborg
get new boyfriends, and Hugo goes back to his old job.
Once he gets used to all the shaking, Andreas falls asleep inside the bus, not waking up
until it finally stops.
He kicks the compartment door open and comes out, only to find himself in a frozen wasteland.
The bus leaves as soon as Andreas comes out, leaving him alone in the snowstorm.