Tolérance zéro

I just discovered the Johan Falk series on netflix. Wow! The build up of the suspense is slow but certain. My heart beats faster and faster with every movie I see. The suspense is killing! I feel the anxiety of the charachters. Tonight I wil watch the final last movie. I hope the pilot movie 'The Third wave' will become available on netflix also.

"Noll Tolerans" may be well plotted, skillfully directed, and impressively cast it still bears a major problem indicated by its title. In making sure that its audience will never be in doubt about who´s good and who´s evil in this movie, the hero-policeman is pure as snow and the villain is downright hissable. Having that established the movie ridicules legal process, denounces legal representation (the villain´s lawyer is even more detestable than the villain himself is) and argues that Sweden´s society would be a safer place to be if it would just allow the police to do their job.

That´s not only a questionable approach to the state of law, it would have been a much better movie in case its makers would have dared to paint it gray and not just black and white. In comparison "Dirty Harry" was a more ambiguous enterprise, with ambiguity being one of the last things springing in mind when thinking about Mr. Callahan.

"Noll Tolerans" certainly isn't the best of Scandinavian cinema I've ever seen, but it certainly isn't as bad as some people would like you to believe. It reminded me more of German detective series like for instance "Tatort" or "Ein fall für Zwei" than that it gave me the feeling that I was watching a movie. I guess this is more straight-to-video material and not really a movie for the cinemas, nevertheless I had a good time watching it.

The story is about Johan Falk, a tough police officer, who finds himself in a shoot-out with jewel robbers. He survives it, but an innocent bystander and one of the robbers get killed. Several witnesses recognize Leo Gaut as the other robber, but Gaut isn't just a small-time criminal. He's a very dangerous guy, who doesn't mind threatening the witnesses. Of course the witnesses soon change their declarations, because they fear for their lives and Falk gets suspended and will be arrested because the police now thinks that he started the shooting. Falk escapes, but instead of hiding, he tries to find out the truth, while being chased by some of his own colleagues.

The movie doesn't offer any special twists, but the story is more than OK and the acting is good. Overall watching this movie isn't the most shocking movie experience you'll ever have, but it is decent enough to keep you interested from the beginning to the end. I give it a 7/10.

From the moment the car chase at the beginning of this film starts you know you are in for a thrilling ride to the end.

I have watched a number of Swedish films of this genre on local cable here in Australia and have come to realise the Swedes make excellent thrillers.

This film's plot is hardly original ... wrongly accused cop seeks truth and justice ....but it is done with such style and elegance (yes elegance, the production design, lighting and cinematography are superb)that the plot holes, mercifully few that there are, are hardly noticed.

The actors (all unknown to me ...but I assume well known in Sweden) are excellent. The tough, thoughtful hero (Jakob Eklund)and the fearful villain (Peter Andersson) in particular add greatly to an already thoroughly satisfying film.

Congratulations to all involved ..I hope the sequel "Livvakterna" is as successful.

Marketed as one of Sweden´s first real action movies ever, "Noll Tolerans" therefore has a lot to live up to. But in my eyes, this is more of a regular cop-thriller than a heavy action movie.

One problem is that "Noll Tolerans" showcases the biggest action scene five minutes into the movie, and every other action scene later on feels like a step down. The ending feels extremely tired. But you can´t deny that this is still very competent work.

The movie begins shortly before Christmas eve, when policeman Johan Falk (Jacob Eklund) runs into foul business on the street. After a frenetic car chase he is confronted with two jewel-thieves, and after a violent shootout one of the robbers gets killed. Thanks to witnesses the other criminal is later arrested. But he manages to threaten the witnesses to silence, and after a while the police force is after Johan Falk instead. Now he must prove he is innocent.

"Noll Tolerans" is an ambitious movie, but you can´t deny that in the States this would have been a straight to video-release. The story is not interesting enough and the pace is awfully slow. Action fans can´t be too happy with this one, but it did get a sequel called "Livvakterna" two years later.

2/5