Fatso (Norway)

Rino (Nils Jørgen Kaalstad) is the main character in what's been billed (largely accurately) as an anti-romantic comedy.  He's an overweight guy living in an apartment owned by his parents who makes his living translating German language technical manuals and doing graphic, graphic novels on the side.  From what I can tell the comics center around his alter ego a super horny rhinoceros that runs afoul of the canine police and occasionally makes his escape by drowning everyone around him in semen from his large and especially productive penis.  That character isn't completely different than Rino who spends most of his spare moments masturbating around the house.  That's when he's not hanging out with his even more sad sack friend - who as in all such movies claims to be getting far more than seems reasonable given his appearance and demeanor.

Into Rino's life comes a hot Swedish student roommate, dictated by his parents who want to rent out a room.  Her arrival makes him clean up his porn stash and forces to suffer through listening to her having noisy sex through the wall on a nightly basis.  Over time and after several false starts a friendship develops - but being billed as an "anti-romantic" comedy you probably don't want to pin your hopes on them getting together in the end.  Most characters leave the film somewhat better than they arrive - though none survives completely unscathed (in some cases that's not an metaphor regarding emotions).  In many ways it's a far deeper story about human nature and relationships than you'd expect from this genre.  Though it does have enough pretty women and jokes about Rino jerking off to ensure those seeking to compare it favorably to American Pie will be satisfied.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I really enjoyed this film, putting it in my top 3 for Fantastic Fest.  It'll likely place well in my top ten for the year so far (even though technically it was released in 2008).  I've read it was a big hit in it's native country but seems as though progress to the US has been rather slow.  It's so well done - acting, script, and photography that I really think US audiences would eat it up.  Actually, I'm surprised there hasn't been a US remake green lit yet. Though I can't imagine Dremel would necessarily want the same featured product placement they enjoyed in the Norwegian version. ;-)

If you're looking to get a visual sense of the film - some not entirely safe for work previews are below.   They don't really give any sense to the story and the feature isn't really all him staring at tempting flesh.  Unfortunately I couldn't find one with subtitles. So had to settle for three with the same song in the background. ;-)