Netflix Greenlights 14-Hour Movie Where Ryan Gosling Slowly Assembles IKEA Bookshelf
Ryan Gosling brings flat-pack intensity to Netflix’s Allen Key: A Love Story, the 14-hour real-time saga of assembling an IKEA shelf.
In what Netflix executives are calling “a groundbreaking exploration of human endurance and Swedish engineering,” the streaming giant has announced a 14-hour feature film in which Ryan Gosling assembles an IKEA bookshelf in real time.
Titled Allen Key: A Love Story, the film will follow Gosling through every step of the process, from opening the deceptively heavy flat-pack box to the inevitable moment when he realizes he’s installed one shelf upside down but is too emotionally invested to fix it.
“We’re redefining cinema,” said Netflix’s Head of Original Content, Lars Plank. “Audiences crave authenticity, and nothing is more authentic than watching a man experience both love and hatred for an inanimate object while holding an Allen wrench.”
Method Acting or Cry for Help?
To prepare for the role, Gosling reportedly spent six months living inside an IKEA in Burbank, subsisting entirely on meatballs and lingonberry jam. He refused to break character, even when approached by customers asking where the bathroom was.
Co-star Florence Pugh, who plays the assembly instruction manual, spent weeks studying blueprints and printing herself in grayscale to accurately portray the confusing diagrams. “I wanted to bring depth to the character,” Pugh told Variety. “Page 7 is particularly tragic.”
A Cinematic Marathon
The 14-hour runtime is intentional, allowing audiences to experience the same sense of mild despair IKEA shoppers feel around Hour 3 of trying to find the right aisle. Netflix recommends viewers watch the film in “Swedish Time”, meaning no bathroom breaks, minimal lighting, and the constant distant sound of children crying.
Critics are already hailing the project as “the most suspenseful use of particleboard since The Martian,” though some have raised concerns about pacing. Director Werner Herzog has dismissed these critiques, stating, “If you can watch nine hours of a hobbit walking to a volcano, you can watch Ryan Gosling put in the fourth dowel pin.”
Merchandising Opportunities
In true Netflix fashion, the film will launch alongside a limited-edition IKEA “Gosling Shelf”; a pre-assembled unit that costs twice as much but still wobbles if you put more than three books on it. Early buyers will also receive a digital download of the film’s haunting soundtrack, composed entirely of Allen wrench clinks and faint muttering.
Allen Key: A Love Story premieres this fall, giving Netflix subscribers the rare opportunity to witness both the fragility of love and the fragility of Swedish plywood in one sitting.
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