Varg Veum - Bitre blomster

The mysteries keep one's attention; the Norwegian background is great as are the sets; the acting is good and there is a lot unexpected in the themes of some episodes. It is hard to review because it is divided by IMBD into single episodes. It deserves higher than the mid 6 ratings which almost kept me Formosa watching. Great for pandemic binging-get away for awhile from the "troubles".

This is the first in what is planned to be a series of adaptations of Gunnar Staalesen's novels about the private detective, Varg Veum, and I must say that I was very pleased with the result.

The plot goes like this: The daughter of a female politician disappears at the same time as the politician's lover also goes underground, and she hires Varg Veum to try to find them. When Varg Veum starts tracking down the various clues, they all point towards the industrial plant the lover works at.

Even though the story in the book takes place in the early 1990s, the adaptation has moved the story to present-day. What pleased me most with the movie, was the beautiful scenery of Bergen together with a very nice musical score. The opening scene first shows Bergen viewed from mount Fløyen, and afterwards we get to see the main bus terminal and Bryggen. People from Bergen watching this movie will be especially pleased with this.

Trond Espen Seim fit the role as Varg Veum perfectly. Some people have criticized the choice of Seim in the lead role because he doesn't speak the Bergen dialect. I was also initially skeptical to this choice, but after seeing the film, I now understand how well he fits into this role. Bjørn Floberg was also great in the role as the chief inspector, and the scenes with him and Trond Espen Seim were great, especially the scene where they meet on the roof of the main bus terminal in the rain. This can't be considered as anything less than a classic scene that must be remembered in Norwegian movie history.

What I didn't like with this film, were most of the scenes with the bad guys. First of all, it was too obvious that they were bad guys. The way they were dressed up and the choice of music for these scenes made it look more like a parody than an actual murder mystery. These scenes were way overdone and destroyed much of the suspense that was built up beforehand.

But all in all, this was a beautiful movie and a beautiful portrayal of Bergen.

Varg Veum is the hero of the titular novels written by the godfather of Scandinavian crime fiction, Gunnar Staalesen, and he is one of the most well fleshed out characters in the genre. The name translates in English as ''wolf in a holy place'' and is the best description for Staalesen's protagonist who is a private investigator with a strong moral compass and decent, though not extraordinary, detective skills that help him to solve the various cases he takes. His past experience as a social worker, mainly dealing with delinquent children, make him more sensitive and intuitive and also helps the audience to empathize with him.

The television adaptations are wonderful and Trond Esper Seim proves to be the best choice for the role of Varg. His performance is measured and esoteric and it succeeds in the difficult task of embodying a demanding fictitious character who has become a legend in his hometown of Bergen. All the stories, twelve in total, are compelling and engaging, unfolding in a nice, steady pace and some of them have some well-placed and effective twists that make them all the more intriguing. The cinematography is also breathtaking with the majority of episodes set in the beautiful Norwegian landscape.

In the sea of today's Nordic Noir television exports, ''Varg Veum'' stands out both in terms of quality and entertainment. If you are a fan of the genre, you should check out immediately this Norwegian production which is on the top-5 on my list of the best Scandi-Noir television series of all time. It should also be noted that the book series are ongoing and the latest novel, titled Wolves at the Door, was published on April 14, 2019.

A local politician Vibeke Farang (Trine Wiggen) is hiring Varg to find her young daughter who has gone missing. Hamre and his assistant Isaschen (Endre Hellestveit) do not wish detective's help and at the same time it is obvious, that he will solve the mystery first. In the investigation a huge company producing medicine is involved as well as brothers who are about to take over the management over it. Corrupted, filled with evil upper class and good, straightfoward Varg. Between those two worlds there is a lawyer working at the company, Anna(Kathrine Fagerland), who would have to choose between job and morality.

Watching "Bitter flowers" makes sense only because of introducing the character of Anna, who will appear in the next pieces. Because beside of the good opening scene the movie is full of cliches - rich parents, preoccupied with carrier and romances, but of course loving their kids, a conspiracy in the big company, and one of the final scenes has too much of resemblance to the end of the one seasons of Dexter.

This is a series we are now getting in the US on Mhz. Compared to the more modern Scandi-Noir offerings, this just seems a bit too contrived, and has all the usual focus of Norwegian Eco topics i.e environmental pollution by big companies, selling chemical weapons etc. As is common in many Norwegian films, logic seems to go out the door and story events just occur without explanation, as long as they fit the story to give it a happy ending. The lead character is a very scruffy looking detective who really could do with a good clean up himself. He seems to get into scrapes with the criminals without waiting for back up to help. Not sure if this is part and parcel for the character as I have not read the novels on which the series is based. The series is composed of a number of seemingly independent episodes so will have to review each one as I watch. The first two, Bitter Flowers and Sleeping Beauty are just watchable but have none of the psychological twists associated with the more modern Scanidi-Noir offerings from Sweden and Denmark. The early Norwegian attempts I find are more geared towards being Politically correct and since the dialog via the subtitles conveys this, have to be enjoyed in that context!