Glasgow Film Festival 2015: The Grump

“It sure ruins my day when the times change.” So begins The Grump, the latest addition to a canon of films in which irritable loners find their hearts softened by social and familial responsibility. What marks out this effort from Dome Karukoski is how wholesome its world is in comparison to the likes of, say, St. Vincent and Big Daddy. The central character isn’t an embittered, beer-swilling pornographer or emotionally underdeveloped slacker, but rather a quaint, puritanical nostalgist.

The premise is simple. When 70-something Mielensäpahoittaja sustains a leg injury at home, he’s taken in by his son and daughter-in-law. Constantly deriding ‘the youth’, the elderly protagonist wastes no time in clashing with his carers, but ultimately both generations learn something from the other. It’s hard to comprehend the director’s desire to tell such a well-worn story, but he succeeds in doing so with sufficient flair and a deft comic touch.

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The Skinny at Glasgow Film Festival 2015:

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