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Reviews
Max Manus (2008)
Authentic but not too memorable
Max Manus is a rather authentic depiction of Norwegian resistance fighters, but unfortunately not very deep. As can be expected by a Scandinavian film, it's great to see that the actors speak the right languages at the right time. Besides Norwegian they speak German, English and also some Finnish, Swedish and Russian. I can attest that all German actors speak proper German, not silly foreigners accents like in many other movies.
Ken Duken in the role of Fehmer quite looks the part of a German officer. And it was nice to see an actor in the role who speaks both German and Norwegian. Yet he talks all the time with a very deep, somehow contrived voice, which I found a bit annoying. And he doesn't seem to have a character, like most people in a picture that does't go deep in showing people with real human characters. All the resistance fighters are cheerful, nice guys. There are no traitors, weaknesses or people with conflicts. That's all a bit too shallow, especially when the real Max Manus apparently had alcohol and emotional problems. Of course the film attempts to develop his friendship with Gregers, the loss of comrades and a deep love story with Tikken, but it isn't all that memorable.
Special effects are OK, but not great, when CGI effects are used they stand out clearly from the rest of the picture. Especially the sinking ship at the end was really weird. I think like many films from this era it will not age well because of the CGI.
Overall a very watchable film, and a solid effort of Norwegian cinema, but the complete potential is not fulfilled.