On the evening of his retirement as a train engineer, dour sixtysomething Norwegian bachelor Odd Horten (Buster Keaton-ish Baard Owe) learns to live life without a timetable. And since O'Horten is the creation of absurdist Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories), a master of droll melancholy, Odd's life is just as peculiar as his name. (For one thing, he finds himself in a car driven by a drunken, blindfolded diplomat, played by Espen Skjonberg.) Like fellow poker-faced Scandinavian filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, Hamer specializes in dry humor born of long, dark nights. Jack Nicholson's dyspeptic retiree in About Schmidt would no doubt identify with O'Horten's entertaining pain. B+