FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
KITCHEN STORIES
Kitchen Stories, a quirky tale set in the early 1950s, features the unlikely twin themes of
market research and extraordinary friendship. Scientists working for Sweden’s Home Research
Institute are sent to a small farming community (which has a significant number of bachelors) to
study single male behavior in the kitchen. The institute’s goal is to develop a standard model for
the most time-efficient and money-saving kitchen layout ever. (Maybe someone should tell the
designers on Trading Spaces.) A craggy loner named Isak (Calmeyer) has agreed to
participate in the study because he's been promised a horse. To say that he is uncooperative is
putting it mildly. Isak refuses to allow his assigned observer, Folke (Nordström), to set
foot inside his house. It is the dead of winter, and poor Folke spends his days banging on the
door. Finally, Isak relents and allows Folke to come in. Hijinks ensue, as Isak purposely grates on
Folke’s nerves with such hilariously juvenile pranks as turning off the light when Folke is taking
notes or devouring a chocolate bar while Folke looks on hungrily. The ice begins to thaw,
however, when Isak finds himself without cigarettes. When Folke offers one of his own, this
opens the door to an unlikely, but certainly charming relationship. The two discover they are not
so different; they are both lonely men set in their ways. They begin to share a real camaraderie
that is so contagiously affecting, you’ll find yourself laughing and being moved at the same time.
A wonderful piece of storytelling, the droll Kitchen Stories is truly heartwarming. Tanya Chesterfield, Book Reviewer (Barnes&noble.com)
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