In Bent Hamer's dry Norwegian comedy Kitchen Stories, a man sits in a high chair in the corner of a farmhouse kitchen, quietly observing the action in the room. It's a funny piece of staging, though it becomes a little sad, too, seeing a man so removed. Kitchen Stories is set in the early '50s, and follows Swedish "Home Research Institute" agent Tomas Norström as he treks to Norway to observe the kitchen habits of widower farmer Joachim Calmeyer. Norström sits in his corner chair like a tennis umpire and scratches out little notes while the reluctant Calmeyer drinks coffee and washes dishes. Calmeyer, of course, sees the notes being taken, and modifies his behavior accordingly—contrary to the aims of the experiment. At times, the farmer actively rebels, switching off the light while he's eating a snack (though Norström thwarts the thwarting by donning a miner's helmet), and sneaking upstairs to spy on Norström through a hole in his bedroom floor. Early on, Kitchen Stories is filled with little sight gags and well-timed reaction shots, as Calmeyer keeps checking Norström for small signs of approval of his cooking and cleaning methods. Later, the film becomes the story of the friendship that develops, as the two begin doing little favors for each other: loaning tobacco or salt or coffee, and even doing each other's work. Eventually, the two begin spending their evenings chatting warmly, while Calmeyer's jealous neighbor watches from outside the house. A lot of the jokes at the beginning of Kitchen Stories address the differences between the hyper-efficient Swedes and the unsophisticated Norwegians, but as Norström admits to feeling guilty at how Sweden maintained neutrality during WWII while Norway was overrun, it's clear that the relationship between the two countries and the two men is far more complex. Kitchen Stories seems too subtle at times and too obvious at others, but Hamer strings together pieces of conversation and layers of voyeurism (everybody in the movie is watching somebody) into a moving study of the perils of presumption. As one of Norström's colleagues puts it after he's abandoned the project and begun drinking with his host, "How can we understand each other if we don't communicate?"