Mørkeland (2024) - Good elements, wrong plot in botched political thriller sequel

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Star Anders W. Berthelsen photoshopped in on some non-existing stairs in front of Denmark's parliament on the poster for Mikkel Serup's Mørkeland

Following several years of unemployment, journalist Ulrik Torp gets an internship at his old workplace, a national Danish newspaper. He is tasked with an assassination story that seems to have implications involving the ongoing general election...

Mørkeland is written by Marie Østerbye (Player (2013)), adapting the same-titled 2019 novel by Niels Krause-Kjær (Tilskueren (2004)), and directed by Mikkel Serup (Klassefesten 2: Begravelsen (2014)). It is the sequel to Nikolaj Arcel's great thriller King's Game/Kongekabale (2004), which was also a Krause-Kjær adaptation. The title translates to 'darkland'.

The novelist has finished two books more since 2019's Mørkeland, and one wonders as a spectator if this film took too long to get made, or was the wrong novel to adapt to begin with, because in any case it comes out as somewhat redundant in today's post-COVID, Ukraine War beset Europe. Denmark's political scandals in the last several years have revolved around its overly powerful, self-governed prime minister and her even less rationally controlled, (sometimes dangerously out-of-control) chief of staff and close friend, that are the very center of Denmark's democratic power. Yet in Mørkeland's alternate universe the threat for most of the film is a tiny right-wing party that struggles to get past the 2 % support barrier to actually obtain MPs, - we are never introduced to any of the more central politicians of the country's election race, - and in fact everything somehow revolves around this tiny, insignificant party. This is an odd plot-line that may have been partly relevant - before the Trump presidency, COVID and several other things happened.

Anders W. Berthelsen (Ditte & Louise (2018)) is back as Torp, with more skin flaps and larger old-man ears, a few more pounds, an actor positively freed from glamouring himself up with procedures and fitness torture, (it is appreciated!), and his journalist look is still very much spot-on. The surrounding cast is competent but that's about it, as their characters are mostly drained of the juice that is wit, humor or personality. There are neat exterior shots of traffic in motion and the film's thriller score (by the completely unknown trio Elvin Matz, Aramis Silvereke and Alexander Weslund (Houseplants, short (2023, all))) is perhaps its best component. Did these three actually make this score? In the age of AI, one is naturally suspicious.

SPOILER The movie's surprise twist is that the real villains are really (deep state) mainstream thinkers (including ex-intelligence agents) who believe they better quell the electorate's right-wing leanings and secure EU stability. Real-world Denmark has had vocal, big right-wing parties with power for decades, so this fantasy seems more than a bit far-fetched. And the relevant political scandals of much bigger proportions (that could have been tackled) are standing in a very long line around the block. 

Mørkeland, in short, shrinks compared to King's Game. But the execution isn't terrible.

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown, projected 30 mil. DKK

Box office: 11.5 mil. DKK and counting

= Too early to say

[Mørkeland was released 22 August (Denmark) and runs 99 minutes. The film has been #1 for 2 weekends in Denmark and sold 137k tickets so far, but it plays in Biografklub Danmark/'cinema club Denmark', meaning that at least half the tickets are sold at half prize. It opens in Sweden, its only slated foreign market, 13 September. Serup does not have his next film announced yet. Berthelsen returns in Børnene fra Sølvgade (2024). 160 IMDb users have given Mørkeland a 6.3/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Mørkeland?

The Wife (2017) - Strong acting tethers complex marrital drama

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The two stars, dressed for gala, send tense, loathsome looks on this poster for Björn Runge's The Wife

An American novelist is awarded the Nobel Prize in literature, and together with wife and son, the three make the daunting journey across the pond, as old resentment and a major secret surface.

The Wife is written by Jane Anderson (Mad Men (2008, TV-series), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Meg Wolitzer (Surrender, Dorothy (1998)), and directed by Björn Runge (Harry och Sonja (1996)). It is a tense and fraught marital drama with Bermanesque tones, (especially since it is mostly set in Sweden), which is powered by sharp performances, especially from leads Jonathan Pryce (Leatherheads (2008)) as the Grand Man author husband, whom Glenn Close's (Hoodwinked! (2005, voice)) complex wife character has just about had enough of finally.
Christian Slater (Breaking In (2011-12)) is solid as a bio-writer, who is sympathetic while at the same time circles the couple with a vulture-like hunger; Max Irons (Dorian Gray (2009)) seems a little old to be the son who lives in his father's shadow, badly needing his approval, but he plays well in the climactic fight and denouement scenes. Harry Lloyd (The Iron Lady (2011)) and Annie Starke (Albert Nobbs (2011)) are very good and credible as young versions of the marrieds, SPOILER who lay the groundwork for the constellation of a Great Writer husband and a secretly ghost-writing missus, which is tearing their marriage apart half a century later.
The Wife is generally a fine drama and a great occasion for Pryce and Close to shine in fleshy roles, which they both fill out very satisfyingly.
It annoys that characters more than once smoke indoors in contemporary Swedish establishments, which is simply unthinkable and has been for more than a decade, important VIP guest or not. Lazy writing, honestly, because what modern people light up cigarettes in fancy locations today?
And then there are small psychological things that nag: SPOILER After decades of such self-discipline, why exactly does Close's character have to explode so impulsively when at the plush gala, seated right next to Swedish royalties? The ending has her indicating that she will write another book under her own name, implying that her deceitful nature now turns to self-deceit, as she must imagine that she'll be able to publish without the world realizing her secret as a decades-long ghost writer.
SPOILER It doesn't seem to be intentional from the creators, but the many decades of diligently churning out novels without demanding credit by Close's character in my eyes blocks an exculpation of her now as her husband takes the world' arguably highest literary honor. She is no victimized innocence but someone who has entered a marriage for self-serving purposes (publication), just as her husband did (to attain her gift for writing.)
The Wife serves well as a debate-starting picture about deceit, equality and the basis of relationships.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 14.2 mil. $ and counting
= Uncertain
[The Wife premiered premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 100 minutes. Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman and Logan Lerman were pursued to star in the film. Shooting took place in Stockholm, Sweden and in Scotland, including Glasgow, ending in October 2016. The film opened #35 to a 108k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it has peaked at #14 and in 541 cinemas and grossed 7.6 mil. $ to date. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are Australia with 2 mil. $ and the UK with 1.9 mil. $ but the film is still playing. It will open in Russia 22 Nov., Norway 23 Nov. and in Japan on 26 Jan. 2019. It is rumored that Close is up for a Best Actress Oscar nomination, which would give the film another push in North America and globally. If the film is made for a likely 8-10 mil. $, it still has quite a distance before becoming a theatrical success. Runge is announced to next helm US drama Remember Me. Close returned in Crooked House (2017), Pryce in The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017). The Wife is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of The Wife?

Border/Gräns (2018) - The second Lindqvist adaptation is another wtf-experience with muddled implications if any

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Standing in a very vivid version of a Swedish forest, Eva Melander's uniformed lead stands out on this curiosity-sparking poster for Ali Abbasi's Border

Tina is a customs officer at a Swedish ferry crossing, a job which she is especially good at since she can smell sinners out. Her unusual, Neanderthal-like traits one day match those of a mysterious crosser, Vore, whom she immediately has a connection with.

Border is written by Isabella Eklöf (Holiday (2018)), John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In/Låt den Rätte Komma In (2007), novel), based on his same-titled short story from the collection Let the Old Dreams Die/Låt de Gamla Drömmarna Dö (2011), and co-writer/director Ali Abbasi (Shelley (2016)). It is a very strange film that is part horror, part fairy tale, part crime drama, and partly a romance. Some may find it very beautiful, a few may find it erotic; some may find it very funny, - and some of its grotesqueness does provoke chuckles, - others mostly disturbing and frightening. I found it mostly uncomfortable.
Tina's journey is so intimate, and the bodily fixation in the film is so strong that it almost continually seems to transgress an intimacy border most other films keep up. The transgression, of course, is felt more strongly because both romantic leads are uncommonly hideous to look at (SPOILER and even have unusual genitalia and reproductive abilities!) As if to make the film's unpleasantness an absolute constant, a subplot concerning pedophiles and baby pornography is also a prominent part of the plot. - Oh yeah: Plus voracious insect-munching, don't forget that.
There are many animals in the film: Impressive scenes with a moose, a fox and deer help keep it fascinating; the prosthetics and makeup designs for Tina and Vore are also incredibly accomplished, and what the leads must have gone through for this film boggles the mind.
The unpleasantness also causes the film to feel overlong, SPOILER as Border develops into a quirky riff on an old Scandinavian mythical forest creature, the troll. This will add interest for Scandinavians and outlandishness for anyone else, I should think.
The score is in line with the overall confusing tone and hard-to-categorize elements, sometimes upping its art film romance feel, at others sounding as a hip indie horror. The head-scratching and disturbing elements (concerning infants) are not illuminated by the film's end, as audiences make it with clammy hands and backs out of the cinemas. 
Border is likely to be 2018's strangest film, and it is fascinating but also a complete cipher to me, besides its genre fantasy allure: Does it tell us anything, and if so what?
From a country with such vast internal problems, no present government and a state that has just rolled out an initiative which encourages people to turn in hand-grenades and other bombs and explosives at local police stations with impunity, as a means to calm gangland explosions that are now so common in the soon unrecognizable Sweden, (not for a week or two but running for 3 months!), - I can't help feeling discouraged that leading Swedish filmmakers apparently don't dare tackle more of that pressing and indeed unfantastic, disturbing reality.

Abbasi gives an interview about the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unreported
= Uncertain
[Border premiered 10 May (Cannes Film Festival, France) and runs 108 minutes. Casting took a reported 18 months. Shooting took place in Sweden. Eva Melander (Flokken/Flocken (2015)) reportedly spent 4 hour before shooting every day to have the prosthetics applied. The film won the Un Certain Regard prize in Cannes, and it has been elected as Sweden's entry for the coming Oscars. It is slated to open 19 October in Norway, 25 October in Russia, 26 Oct. in USA, 3 January in Portugal and 9 January in France. Abbasi does not have his next project announced yet. Leads Melander and Eero Milonoff (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki/Hymyilevä Mies (2016)) also don't have coming gigs announced. Border is fresh at 95 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Border?