Production year: 2011
Country: Rest of the world
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 101 mins
Directors: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Aksel Hennie, Julie Olgaard, Max Manus, Nikolaj Coster Waldau, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnove Macody, Synnove Macody Lund
If the producers of this movie have their way, Norwegian noir will be the new Stockholm suspense. Following in Stieg Larsson's footsteps, this is the first adaptation of king of the airport thriller, Jo Nesbø. The plot pits cocky recruitment consultant Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) against espionage executive Clas Greve (Game of Thrones's Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). It's a duel to the death, ostensibly over a stolen painting, while there's also a moral somewhere about modern capitalism. But the film doesn't merit chinstroking: it's stuffed with Troma-style riffs around schlock, gore and human effluvia, bookended by Shallow Grave-like sections full of cynical machinations. The parts barely relate, never mind work together.
