The decade we love to make fun of is the framework for this off-beat film from Norway (selected for that country’s entry as foreign language film for the 2003 Academy Awards). It begins as a lampoon of the era with a time and motion study of housework, a concept memorably portrayed by Alec Guinness in the classic comedy "The Man in the White Suit", and moves with humor and whimsical grace into something more profound and encompassing. The emphasis is emphatically from a male point of view and revolves around a research study of the kitchen habits of single males by the Swedish Home Research Institute. In the global climate of post war prosperity, bringing streamlined convenience to every home was a preoccupation of the institute. The study sent a group of observers, each assigned to the home of a Norwegian bachelor, to spend several weeks in the kitchen of his subject. His task was to record information from his perch high above the kitchen about the number and frequency of steps taken from sink, to stove, to table, and the like, without participating in any way.

Observer Folke is paired with Isak, a reluctant volunteer for the project after being persuaded by his friend Grant, whose interest is in helping his reclusive friend. With quiet hilarity and unsentimental authenticity, the pair slowly forms a bond that chafes against their roles as observer and observed. Beyond the obvious or amusing 1950s visions - the doctor smoking cigarettes as he examines Grant, or the car engine that requires nothing more than a wrench to fix - deeper layers of humanity emerge in subtle and penetrating ways.

The comical toy-like trailers that the observers occupy are painted an institutional green that washes over the film and provides a soothing appearance that echoes the mood of 1950’s tranquility. At first, Isak is uncooperative and uncommunicative, but slowly the two men find quietly intense and deeply human common ground. There is a lot going on in this simple film. In addition to adding on new layers of the Folke’s relationship, we glimpse the impact the study has on Isak’s friendship with Grant, and the unexpected reactions of the study’s sponsor in the person of Malmberg, who has his own difficulty with change. Isak’s touching bond with his horse and Folke’s developing sense of purpose are wonderfully fleshed out in fine, subtle performances. The human ability to adapt and yet to remain a unique individual is only one of the subtexts of this delightful film. A restrained jazzy score inserted at just the right moments punctuates the otherwise subdued sounds in Isak’s kitchen.