11/24/2015

Northwest/Nordvest (2013) - Strong performances make Noer's underwritten crime thriller work



Lead Gustav Dyekjær Giese frontlines the tough guys on the poster for Michael Noer's Northwest

QUICK REVIEW:

Casper is a young burglar in Copenhagen's Nordvest [Northwest] neighborhood, who has gotten really tired of answering to the local immigrant hood Jamal. When he takes a job from a rocker-related gangster, his little brother gets mixed up in it ...

Great co-writer/director Michael Noer (R: Hit First, Hit Hardest/R (2010)), whose first solo-directing feature this is, succeeds in creating a suspense and a sense of realism in Northwest, which a lot of the time is carried by the actors: Roland Møller (A Hijacking/Kapringen (2012)) especially, and Lene Maria Christensen (Terribly Happy/Frygtelig Lykkelig (2008)) is good as the mother, but it is debuting amateur actors Gustav Dyekjær Giese (When Animals Dream/Når Dyr Drømmer (2014)) and his real-life younger brother Oscar Dyekjær Giese (Attack of the Lederhosenzombies (2015)) who are the film's real scoop. Lead Giese's face and gesticulation communicates his character's dual sides as a scared kid and a semi-hard kid very well.
Rasmus Heisterberg (A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012)) co-wrote Northwest, which is a good film but unfortunately a little short, (it runs 91 minutes.) More plot elements could have been elaborated and escalated further.
Noer is currently out with his third fiction feature, Key House Mirror/Nøgle Hus Spejl (2015), about growing old and falling in love.




Watch the trailer for the film with English subtitles here

Cost: 12.6 mio. DKR (approximately 1.8 mil. $)
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[Northwest was shot in and around Northwest, Copenhagen. Despite many good reviews, the film only drew 97,452 tickets in its native Denmark, which is far from hit status. It was shown in many other countries, mostly at festivals, and a gross is not made public, so saying how it did commercially is difficult, but I will generously label it a big flop.]

What do you think of Northwest?

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