Dir: Anders Thomas Jensen (15 116 mins)
A superbly dark revenge comedy that mingles grief, coincidence and Taken-esque bloodletting, with Mads Mikklesen magnetically watchable as a grieving husband struggling to communicate with his daughter. A regular collaborator with writer/director Jensen, Mikkelsen has previously appeared in the likes of offbeat comedy Men And Chicken, pitch-dark drollfest Adam’s Apples, wayward heist drama Flickering Lights and cannibal comedy The Green Butchers. Each of these films has a certain indefinable quality, tonally shifting throughout but remaining brilliantly whole. Mikkelsen responds superbly to Jensen’s leftfield dramas – packed full of surprise, humour and gasps, taking narrative risks where few would fear to tread.
In this latest collaboration, Mikkelsen plays a soldier whose wife is killed in a train accident. Subsequently, he is led by a trio of eccentric statisticians to believe this was no unfortunate coincidence, but an assassination of a member of the Riders Of Justice gang, who was going to testify against their leader and now has been silenced. Nikolaj Lie Kaas is the gentle statistician who gave up his seat in the train for Mikkelsen’s wife – a move that killed her. Attempting to make amends, he finds a link to the train accident and the gang and sets Mikkelsen on a path of vengeance, along with his quarreling associates: an excellent Lars Brygmann and Nicolas Bro, also Jensen film regulars.
Mikkelsen’s daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heicke Gadeberg) wants her father to deal with the grief in which they are both embroiled. She tries to search for some meaning or connection, tracing the day’s events back to the theft of her bike; he, though, is stoic, cold, channeling his anger at losing his wife into violence against the gang who apparently caused her senseless death. Brilliantly skating over many themes – masculinity, abuse, impotent rage – Jensen’s film is also surprisingly tender and moving. There may be neck breaks but they happen amidst musings on the human soul.
Impossible to classify but incredibly good, this is another Mikkelsen performance to savour: buttoned down and scary but also ripe with melancholy. His erstwhile unlikely gang of friends, the excellent supporting cast, make Riders Of Justice a companion piece to the fantastic Another Round. Philosophical, often very funny and tense, this is well worth mounting up for.
Released in cinemas on Fri 23 July
words KEIRON SELF