KITCHEN STORIES; A watched Norwegian never boils his egg water

Oh, to live near the Arctic Circle.

Norwegian writer and director Bent Hamer's comedy Kitchen Stories is the sort of movie critics love to use words like "dry" and "stiff" to describe. Dry like a batch of lutefisk left out in a month's worth of midnight sun. Stiff like a Saab encased in a glaciated fjord. For once, the critics are right. Kitchen Stories is a fastidious slice of unthawed Scandinavian humor that exudes a unique vibe I like to call "Garrison Keillor after a batch of Quaalude-laced herring." In other words, you might want to bring your headphones.

Folke (Tomas Norstrom) is an expert from the all-important Swedish Home Research Institute. He and a select group of …