Kraftidioten

Finally watched it last night. Instead, I got a film that quickly grew on me as the body count mounted (hence the Englsh title). An earlier reviewer said it was like Fargo, but I would add a touch of an absurd Kill Bill body count. At the end of the film I was laughing out loud. A great dark comedy.

Stellan is stellar in Kraftidioten and so are the ever-neurotic villain and his comrades. Northern comedies are famous for a sort of mocking realism, spiced with irony, complete, as a rule, with a generous amount of black humor (cf. Adam's Apples, Flickering Lights, The Green Butchers). Kraftidioten doesn't fail to deliver on that count, for sure. It is at the same time serious, playful, hilarious, and thus highly entertaining. The plot doesn't have huge surprises in store, but what it does have is of the finest strain. The story is nicely spun; the characters are memorable, and dialogs are well-written and wonderfully witty throughout.

The son of a snow plower driver is killed by drug dealers for something he's not involved in. This sends the father, who is by the way a highly-esteemed citizen thanks to his work for the community, into a paternal rage and on a quest to avenge his son, setting a domino effect in motion in the local mafia's life.

A snow-covered dark comedy that should please a wide variety of movie lovers for all the good reasons. Double thumbs up! 9/10.

Unassuming, snow ploughing, 'Citizen of the year', a man of few words, Nils Dickman (Stellan Skarsgård), goes on a vigilante kill crazy rampage, disposing of those mobsters responsible for his son's death, because a man must avenge his son... it's expected of him.

...and that's basically the plot in this quirky, slightly strange, somewhat dark, Nordic humoured movie. After a intriguingly dark and interesting beginning, the plot itself runs a little stale and begins to feel slightly familiar and rehashed. It's a shame, because a weak plot is the movie's only flaw. To me, it felt a little bit of a cop-out from the original premise of the 'ordinary man', that he could conveniently enlist the help of his criminally linked brother, in order to get the movie flowing again.

Nevertheless, there is a lot to take away from the movie, and, even if the plot falls a little flat midway, the characters and even the ambiance certainly do not! There is something so charmingly black in the understated Nordic tone that will keep you enticed - perhaps not loud roaring laughter, but certainly continuous rumbling chuckling throughout. The theme may be familiar, but it is told with a new ice veneer that is typically Norwegian in style, aided by the wonderfully droll backdrop of the mountainous countryside. Whether it be the in-car conversations between mobsters discussing issues such as differences between the welfare systems of cold climate countries as opposed to those of hot climate countries; or the face-off between the kingpin mobster, Greven (Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen) and his passively aggressive, coldly beautiful, ice-queen ex-wife, Marit (Birgitte Hjort Sørensen), these little scenes will most certainly keep you entertained and engaged.

The movie is certainly self-aware and has a little laugh at the quirks of Norwegian culture. This is no more evident than in the king-pin's home with its excessive and immaculate modernist furnishings. Scenes with Greven putting 'five-a-day fruits' ahead of business matters again epitomises the 'new world' of the Norwegian mobster. This modern society is put in stark contrast to the 'old world' of the Serbian rival gang where tradition and loyalty, the notion of an eye-for-an-eye, is paramount. Yet, even despite its odd quirks, the new world can manage to entice the old, with the Papa (Bruno Ganz), in the midst of his manhunt, opening up to new sensations on the cold mountaintop, vicariously experiencing the simple pleasures of the children as they ski down the mountain... and so the movie is perhaps also proud of its culture and origins, giving it a proverbial 'Fargo' feel.

Perhaps it doesn't quite attain the promise of 'high-art' it might suggest in its opening 20 minutes, but soon you learn it doesn't really need to. It's a quirky, superfluous little number that will give you fresh enjoyment on an old theme, and keep you quietly chuckling along, clucking like a hen, until the very end.

First Headhunters, now this.. The films that keep coming out of Scandinavia, and in particular Norway, are hard to beat. Headhunters was most definitely one of my favourites of last years and this is also very high on the list.

For me it's the (fairly) unknown actors, the absolutely shameless and inventive humor and I guess that beautiful landscape. And of course the great, very well known, Stellan Skarsgard for whom this seems like it's especially made for. He is perfect and such a great character that you will be rooting for him long after the film is finished. He makes the film, but it probably would have worked with another actor as well, as the story is so original and highly entertaining.

Absolutely loved it and can't wait to see it again. Hollywood: HANDS OFF 8/10

Well-made action-thriller with Stellan Skarsgård as a decent Swedish snowplowerer in the Norwegian mountains becomes an avenger for his dead son.

Reminds me more of American revenge flicks like 'TAKEN (2008)', 'JOHN WICK (2014)' and 'THE EQUALIZER (2014)' than anything typically Scandinavian... Without ever getting too cheesy or 'poserish' which tend to happen at times when the Scandis attempt at this (for instance 'EXIT (2006)', 'GANGSTER (2007)' or '9 MILLIMETER (1997)' are examples of this when done poorly).

But yeah here they get it right, with a solid and incredibly intense crime boss played by Pål Sverre Hagen and overall pretty stellar acting.

A bit of dark comedy in the mix as well reminiscent of 'FARGO (1996)' and 'THE BIG WHITE (2005)'.

Liam Neeson is in the talks of being the lead in an American remake and that seems like it would be the go to guy with the task, however not sure if it will get any better as it's just fine the way it is.