Exit

Just as Thomas (Mads Mikkelsen) is about to step into the limelight of corporate leadership, a ghost from his past comes back to haunt him. Before he knows what's happening, people around him drop like flies and he finds himself at the hand of mysterious blackmailers. You can tell this movie is based on a novel (by Jesper Kärrbrink), and in a bad way. There are just too many loose ends for a feature-length exposition. Behind layers of deception and betrayal, there is nothing but more layers yet. I found it hard even to keep track of the players, both individual and institutional, as Thomas is caught in a circle of rising stakes and increasing violence. Go see it if you liked "The Firm" or Michael Almereyda's "Hamlet".

Okay, here's the problem of this movie: Two business partners, one old and one younger, who trusted and relied on each other, and the old one was like a mentor to his younger partner. And their business was worth 10 billions market value, but they made an addendum to their partnership: if either of them died first, the survival one could buy out the dead partner's share at two millions. And before the old guy told the younger guy that he's decided to retire and would leave the corporate completely to his younger partner. But instead of getting excited, the younger partner became so upset about the sudden decision of his mentor and totally against it. And then, what could be so coincidental that night, the guy who once owned that big family business was kicked out 7 years ago, but he had already set up a fake suicide and blew up a guy's head in his clothes and disappeared. The he spent the next 7 years to get even to avenge his downfall of his own fault. I don't think there's any spoiler from me, 'cause they so conveniently showed in the movie, there's no WHODONEIT mystery here in my review, I just pointed out how stupid this scenario and the plot this movie was. The guy was supposed to know there's a SECRET buy-out agreement between those two partners? How conveniently the scenario arranged that guy to murder the old partner just on the night he told his young partner he had decided to retire and phased out himself out of the corporate management? You think that younger partner would have risked everything to murder his mentor/partner and committed such stupid murder? Yet the police seemed to believe that the younger partner was the culprit murderer.

If you at the same time, at the exact moment when I decided not to watch this stupid plotted movie, and still interested to watch continuously, then you've got to have your I.Q. retested. I'm out of here.

Scandinavian crime thrillers is a known sign of quality, recent years have Danish films excelled Swedish ones, but in many of them, actors from both countries are used. Exit is also a fine example of that cooperation where Mads Mikkelsen - one of the most versatile contemporary Danish actors - was included. Again, he gives a great performance, nicely complemented by fine Swedes such as Alexander Skarsgård and Ulf Friberg, for example. Moreover, Mikkelsen is fluent in Swedish (rare among Danes), thus he is able to communicate in both Danish and decent Swedish throughout the film, emanating from the nature of his character.

The plot is okay, even good, but includes some questionable scenes and unexplained events, thus the tag "mystery" is in the right place... Twists and chases, however, were catchy to follow, and the lack of some logic began to "haunt" when the credits appeared, not during watching. All in all, Exit is recommended to all those fond of Scandinavian crime films with pacing faster than average.

Exit starts of interesting with a dramatic happening at a company. This is kept as a secret for seven years. The film soon evolves into a fast paced thriller. As always is Mads Mikkelsen brilliant, here as a business man which find himself in a severe predicament.

The film has an interesting premise, and we are immediately drawn into the story, which is well explained, even being difficult business stuff. I haven't been very impressed with Swedish films from the last decade, except for making cheap but decent and well played crime thrillers. This however surprises in a pleasant way. It's engaging, surprising and realistically told about dirty business. The film gives me associations to both the Millennium trilogy and the sublime Norwegian Headhunters.

Surprisingly enough, as far as I can find, Peter Lindmark haven't directed a film since this one, which was made in 2006. How can it be he hasn't been called upon to do more directorial work for the last 7 years? I really think this is atrocious, as he deserves to do more work like this. There must be something seriously wrong with the Swedish film industry when this can happen.

Not convinced if I like this one or not.

Mads Mikkelsen's performance is definitely a part I enjoyed, he is excellent throughout. The rest of the onscreen talent, e.g. Kirsti Torhaug and Alexander Skarsgård, are good too - bar one. That one member of the onscreen talent that didn't enthrall me is Samuel Fröler - lousy. No hate on the actor necessarily, but he just didn't fit the role in my opinion... needed someone more menacing.

So, Fröler is one negative... but not the only one. The way the plot unfolds irritated me at a few moments, most notably at the point involving Henrik Noél Olesen's Preben; to avoid spoiling, all I can say is: as if! It's not perfectly written, at all... even dumb in parts. I can always ignore it once or twice, but I found myself disliking a few moments every now and then.

Rating-wise, it's 6/10 or 7/10 - the former feels harsh, the latter generous. I think Mikkelsen's showing just about tilts it into the higher score. I likely won't revisit, though I guess you could do far worse. 'Exit' is an OK watch.