Mads Mikkelsen

  • Retfærdighedens ryttere [Riders of Justice] (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) The problem with films that deliberately try to upset you is that, well, they either don’t work, or they do succeed at upsetting you. There’s an early series of hints in Riders of Justice that the film is about cosmic coincidences in the vein of films that seek some kind of statement about the universe. Well, ignore that hint to your peril, because this is not a film about fine-tuned algorithms and fail-proof analyses. It’s about human obsession with finding links where there are none, and the rather vexing consequences when people make the wrong decisions. Anchored by a typically solid performance from Mads Mikkelsen, Riders of Justice nonetheless does not want to be the kind of revenge thriller that it initially suggests. Rather than avenge the death of the protagonist’s wife, this thriller has its characters create more problems for themselves by seeking connections where there are none, and taking action on people who don’t turn out to be all that innocent. Resolutely unwilling to play by the rules of Hollywood, it ends up like a film that nearly has something to say but seems determined to meander along the way. In messing with expectations, it doesn’t feel like a tight film—a damaging quality for a thriller. If, indeed, it’s meant to be a thriller, because for all of the gunplay and violence, there’s a feeling that Riders of Justice is really more interested in doing its own things, even if it leaves viewers unsatisfied and shrugging.

  • Druk [Another Round] (2020)

    Druk [Another Round] (2020)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2021) Considering my muted-to-hatred reaction to much of Thomas Vinterberg’s filmography, saying that I didn’t dislike Druk is actually high praise of a sort. Of course, as a lifelong non-drinker, the idea of a film revolving around middle-aged men drinking his way through their midlife crises is perplexing. Still, Druk takes us to Copenhagen through a school year in which our protagonist (Mads Mikkelsen) and three friends decide to test the theory that humans are happier in a constant state of mild inebriation. It gets worse when they decide to graduate from constant day drinking to hardcore binge-drinking. No one will be particularly surprised to learn that a Vinterberg “comedy” eventually leads to a firing, two separations and a suicide. Fortunately, the suicide leads the survivors to regain their joie de vivre, somehow glossing over their involvement in driving their friend to the consequences of their alcoholism. But it’s all right: The last few minutes have Mikkelsen dancing up a storm, and the result won an Oscar! But as I said: I didn’t dislike Druk. It’s not always as interesting as it should be, but the immersion in modern-day Denmark is interesting, Mikkelson is rarely less than compelling, and there are a few good touches of humour scattered here and there. But in typical Vinterberg fashion, the pacing is often slack, the refusal to adhere to a clear tone can be maddening, and the result can be messy. Still, it could have been worse: I’ve seen other Vinterberg movies.

  • Polar (2019)

    Polar (2019)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Netflix Streaming, December 2020) Circa-2020 cinema has a number of issues, but the one that sticks into my craw is the sharp uptick in psychopathic gory comedy in the past few years. There’s now a constant stream of R-rated comedies that seem eager to supplement their funny gags with gag-inducing violence, and the blending of the two isn’t complementary as much as it’s indicative of some deep-rooted psychopathy from the filmmakers. While I think that there’s a place for gore and comedy in films such as the John Wick series, or in Zombieland: Double Tap, it’s all about tone, and movies that can’t control their tone end up feeling like mental ward escapees. There’s no need to figure limb amputation as a comic device in The Spy Who Dumped Me, for instance, or to spoil what could have been a decent enough action film in Polar with a near-intolerable amount of gore, death and gratuitous meanness. Mads Mikkelsen stars as an assassin about to retire from “Damocles,” an organization employing hitmen for the highest bidders. But HR problems are about to catch up with him once Damocles realizes the savings they could make by eliminating him before he cashes his pension. This goofy opening sequence drives much of the tone of Polar’s imagined universe, except badly: Compared to the far more successful worldbuilding of the John Wick series, Polar can’t keep its stories straight nor be disciplined about how it’s going to go about it. Even the opening sequence sets a discordant tone with its off-kilter proportions of violence and comedy: There’s too little comedy for too much violence, and Polar doesn’t feel as edgy as pathetic in the way it indulges teenage conceptions of what an R-rated film should contain. It doesn’t help that the story goes in overtime to tie itself up in unnecessary knots, further proving the unreality of its universe. Director Jonas Åkerlund does have a keen instinct for fluidly moving narratives (although there’s a big, big lull in the third quarter), but he would be better served by better scripts. In parallel, I sure hope that everyone soon burns out on extreme violence in otherwise adequate films – there’s a race to the bottom there that I don’t want to see, as comedies now rival old-school horror movies for the number of exposed innards.

  • Jagten [The Hunt] (2012)

    Jagten [The Hunt] (2012)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, March 2015) Most films are maddening because they fail, but The Hunt is infuriating on purpose.  It tells, in painful details, what happens in a small Danish community when a kind and quiet man is falsely accused of exposing himself to a child.  The ostracism and violence that follows feels all-too-real, as is the protagonist’s decent in a kind of madness when everyone leagues against him.  Mads Mikkelsen is splendid in the lead role, his good social standing being destroyed scene after scene as other decide to make an example out of him.  For the viewer, there’s real frustration in seeing a small childish fib become bigger, emboldened by adults rushing to judgement.  Under director Thomas Vinterberg’s clinical, down-to-Earth direction, the film is designed to make viewers grit their teeth and sigh helplessly at the screen.  As a result, no one should be surprised to find that the film gets great reviews… but that few people would be willing to see it a second time.

  • Flammen & Citronen [Flame & Citron] (2008)

    Flammen & Citronen [Flame & Citron] (2008)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On DVD, September 2011) It would have been so easy to take the basic premise of this film and make a big schlocky over-the-top action movie out of it: After all, what better than two distinctive assassins working together to kill Nazis during occupied WW2 Denmark to inspire gunfights, car chases and explosions?  In fact, for short moments, it’s possible to mistake Flammen & Citronen for such an action movie.  There’s gunplay, car chases and maybe an explosion or two.  But make no mistake: As it advances, the film gets grimmer and grimmer, as it becomes obvious that the resistance is being exploited, that the Nazis may not all be worth a bullet in the head, and as the two lead characters fall in increasingly desperate circumstances.  Sooner or later, their actions doom them to an inglorious end.  Still, Flammen & Citronen does deliver in terms of entertainment, and the downbeat ending fits with the ambiguous thematic aspirations of the script.  (It’s also faithful to the true story that inspired the film.)  As a look at World War 2 from a different perspective than the Anglo-Saxon (or French) one, Flammen & Citronen is an entry on par to the Dutch Zwartboek / Black Book.  (Even though Verhoeven’s film feels more polished, the pair makes for a splendid double feature.)  The production values of the film as impressive, and the recreation of the era is believable.  Thure Lindhardt and Mads Mikkelsen are fine in the title roles, but WW2 cinephiles will have more fun spotting Christian Berkel in yet another Nazi role.  Flammen & Citronen got practically no play in North America, but it’s a world-class piece of cinema; anyone who thinks that there’s nothing more to say about World War 2 may want to have a look at this one.