Elling is a 2001 film from Norway directed by Peter Næss.
Elling is a forty-ish man who has spent his whole life living alone with his mother—and "alone" means alone, with little to no contact with other human beings. At the start of the film Elling's mother has died, and Elling has to be dragged out of a closet in the family home by the police. Elling, who has severe social anxiety disorders that manifest in a terror of going outside or even answering the phone, is sent to a mental institution.
There he is roommates with Kjell Bjarne, a gruff big guy whose disorders aren't quite as well-defined as Elling's, but who says he's still a virgin at the age of 40 and who has severe hygiene problems. Eventually Elling and Kjell Bjarne are released from the mental institution and put up in a little apartment by the Norwegian government, to see if they can fend for themselves on the outside. Elling's problems are severe enough that the first time he tries to go to the grocery store, he collapses in a panic attack, but he slowly gets better. His fragile new life is threatened however when Kjell Bjarne starts to strike up a friendship with Reidun, a pregnant lady who lives upstairs.
Tropes:
- Babies Ever After: The film ends with Reidun delivering her baby and Kjell Bjarne becoming a stepfather.
- Book Ends: The first line is Elling, in narration, saying that he's a momma's boy. The last lines have Elling, again narrating, saying "I want to remain who I am, momma's boy," but adding that he also wants to be an underground poet. (And in fact he's achieving success, having gotten a poem published.)
- Brutal Honesty: After Kjell Bjarne carries a drunk Reidun into her apartment he says he'll stay with her. Elling says that's a bad idea: "You look like a rapist. You'll terrify her."
- Fan Disservice: Kjell Bjarne's pasty white butt, seen as he takes his pants off and frantically washes his privates in the lake after finding out that Reidun wants some sex.
- Love Informant: It falls to Elling to tell Reidun, who is wondering what Kjell Bjarne things about her, that Kjell Bjarne is in fact in love with her.
- Meet Cute: For a given version of "cute", as Kjell Bjarne meets upstairs neighbor Reidun for the first time on Christmas Eve when they find her, pregnant and drunk, passed out in the stairwell of the building.
- Momma's Boy: The first line of dialogue has Elling, in his narration that runs throughout the film, saying that he is a momma's boy. He is to a severe and unhealthy extent, as apparently his mother was the only person he had contact with since he was a child.
- Odd Couple: Although Kjell Bjarne's social anxiety doesn't seem to be as bad as Elling's it is still there, as he also can't bring himself to answer the ringing phone. In all other ways they are an odd couple contrast. Elling is a short, small man, balding, and he is neat and fussy and prudish. Kjell Bjarne is a big, tall man, he has very poor hygiene, he curses a lot, and he talks endlessly about women and how he really, really wants to have sex with one.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with Elling walking away down the street as he muses in voiceover narration that he's OK with how his life is working out.
- The Pig-Pen: Kjell Bjarne. At one point Elling complains about his body odor and says that he hasn't bathed in two weeks and Kjell Bjarne says no, it's been ten days. Towards the end, when the whole gang is spending the weekend at Alfons's cabin by the lake, Kjell Bjarne faces the unexpected prospect of sex with Reidun—but he has not changed his underwear in a very, very long time. He begs for Elling's underwear, which Elling gives him after Kjell Bjarne has taken his pants off and frantically washed his privates in the lake.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The death of Elling's mother forces him to leave the house and to eventually engage with the world.
- Right Through the Wall: The moans and shouts as Kjell Bjarne and Reidun have sex cause a horrified Elling to leave the cabin. Even that's not enough, as Elling can still hear, while sitting at the lake, Kjell Bjarne's orgasmic shouts. Elling is left cringing and covering his ears.
- The Shut-In: Elling makes a passing reference to having had friends as a child but he was in his house with no other contact than his mother for a very, very long time. He has to be forcibly dragged out. He collapses in a panic attack the first time he tries to leave his apartment, and after that doesn't try again for quite a while. He is terrified of using the telephone, which causes Frank the social worker to return in person, yell at Elling and Kjell Bjarne for not answering the phone, and then conduct a practice drill in which he trains Elling on picking up the phone.
- Stress Vomit: Elling's first attempt to go out to a poetry night at a local club results in him vomiting in a stall in the bathrooms when the stress gets to him.
- Unusual Euphemism: Elling describes the mental institution where he is sent to as a place for "people who just want to be left alone."
