The script takes liberties that are so hair raising that I have to assume this movie is a genre parody. (What genre? Uh, Nordic crime drama?) The action takes place in a region somewhere in Norway - where there is a bank robbery every 50 years. And every 70 years a dangerous mental case escapes from the loony bin. And every 100 years there is a murder. In the movie it just happens that the three things happen the very same morning. And not only that. The escaped mental case happens to sit passively in the very bank at the very moment of the robbery (because of the air conditioning, as we learn later) just after the murder was discovered and a chubby boy reported seeing him in the area of the crime. And not only that. The robber decides to take the mental case as a hostage. Please don't ask me why, nothing makes much sense here.
Strange as it is, from there on it gets better and I don't mean it ironically. The robber and the mental case flee through the woods and become friends - sort of - although the latter tries to bite off the nose of the former (friends of gore will not be disappointed). The two actors are really good - the chemistry works. And in this relationship lie the main elements of suspense of the whole story as it is not clear in what way the mental case is a mental case. There are moments in which the story turns into a kind of an ancient fairy story and the whole imagery beautifully enhances this impression. The robber proposes that they go to Haiti together. He would open a bowling alley, the mental case, he suggests, could make a living as a dog trainer. These were the few traces of intentional humor I could detect. Later the robber somehow downsizes his aim to an escape to neighboring Sweden.
Of course there is a cop. And of course he is divorced and has trouble with his ex, fact which the audience is not spared from. And not only that. He is Danish! That is a country far, far away from Norway. So he is a total stranger in the land of Ibsen and out of his depth. To tell the truth, I thought he rather looked like a mental case himself but then: don't we all? It is a small wonder that the case more or less solves itself, despite the help" of a brash woman psychiatrist (with whom he gets to the point of jointly rolling in the hay in the second half of the movie only). There is a kind of a surprise ending (again in terms of logic pretty mind boggling) that is not half bad. Political correctness abounds, of course. The dad ob the chubby boy is away on a peace keeping mission for the UN, ethnical Non-Norwegians are favorably placed in strategic places without much effect.
I judge this a well crafted good bad movie. I am not a Scandinavian, and probably many regional inside jokes simply escaped me. This movie showed me that it is not always clear if I read" a picture the way its makers wanted me to. But that's one of the fascinating qualities of the medium, isn't it? In any case, I had a good time with Den som frykter ulven.
Strange as it is, from there on it gets better and I don't mean it ironically. The robber and the mental case flee through the woods and become friends - sort of - although the latter tries to bite off the nose of the former (friends of gore will not be disappointed). The two actors are really good - the chemistry works. And in this relationship lie the main elements of suspense of the whole story as it is not clear in what way the mental case is a mental case. There are moments in which the story turns into a kind of an ancient fairy story and the whole imagery beautifully enhances this impression. The robber proposes that they go to Haiti together. He would open a bowling alley, the mental case, he suggests, could make a living as a dog trainer. These were the few traces of intentional humor I could detect. Later the robber somehow downsizes his aim to an escape to neighboring Sweden.
Of course there is a cop. And of course he is divorced and has trouble with his ex, fact which the audience is not spared from. And not only that. He is Danish! That is a country far, far away from Norway. So he is a total stranger in the land of Ibsen and out of his depth. To tell the truth, I thought he rather looked like a mental case himself but then: don't we all? It is a small wonder that the case more or less solves itself, despite the help" of a brash woman psychiatrist (with whom he gets to the point of jointly rolling in the hay in the second half of the movie only). There is a kind of a surprise ending (again in terms of logic pretty mind boggling) that is not half bad. Political correctness abounds, of course. The dad ob the chubby boy is away on a peace keeping mission for the UN, ethnical Non-Norwegians are favorably placed in strategic places without much effect.
I judge this a well crafted good bad movie. I am not a Scandinavian, and probably many regional inside jokes simply escaped me. This movie showed me that it is not always clear if I read" a picture the way its makers wanted me to. But that's one of the fascinating qualities of the medium, isn't it? In any case, I had a good time with Den som frykter ulven.