Review: Wisconsin Film Festival
In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) | Hans Petter Moland | Norway | 2014 | 116 min
Wisconsin Film Festival, Capitol Theater, Saturday April 11, 3:45pm»
Wisconsin Film Festival, Sundance Cinema 5, Tuesday April 14, 8:30pm»
Editor’s Note: Our readers are probably aware of a conflict that has emerged between our colleagues at Tone Madison and the Wisconsin Film Festival. This is our second year collaborating with Tone Madison and LakeFrontRow on Festival coverage, and we’re confident that the conflict will be resolved soon. Meanwhile, we have expressed our concerns to both parties, and we will reserve published commentary on the matter until the parties have a chance to work things out, or until we believe editorial commentary is warranted. We continue our full-length reviews of films at the upcoming Wisconsin Film Festival with this first contribution to Madison Film Forum from Edwanike Harbour. —James Kreul and Jake Smith
The Wisconsin Film Festival has done a stellar job bringing Scandinavian films to Madison (Adam’s Apples; Green Butchers). This year, Hans Petter Moland’s In Order of Disappearance may follow in the footsteps of some of the Scandinavian crowd favorites.
Stellan Skarsgård (A Somewhat Gentle Man, WFF 2011; Thor; The Avengers) stars in this dark comedy as Nils, an an upstanding citizen in his community whose son is murdered by a Norwegian drug cartel. He drives a snowplow for a living, which is not an occupation that lends itself to one becoming a vengeful assassin, but Nils does it with aplomb.
Skarsgård’s performance as a father hellbent on revenge, balances menace with an equal amount of deadpan humour. Combining a bit of sleuthing with a bit of gratuitous violence, he manages to assassinate those responsible for his son’s death, one by one. In a classic Coen brothers’ style comic mix up, a rival Serbian drug cartel is blamed for the deaths and more disappearances ensue. Some of the killing even takes place off screen as a title card indicating the name and faith of the character briefly appears after they…disappear.
Moland’s films (Zero Kelvin, Aberdeen) are marked by a certain absurdity that’s very intriguing. There’s no shortage of quirky characters like the “Count” (Pål Sver Hagen), a vegan drug dealer who is insistent that his son gets five servings of organic fruits and vegetables everyday while he distributes kilos of cocaine throughout the country. Two clueless policemen also provide some light reprieve as the number of deaths increase rapidly during the film. In one scene, an officer is too lazy to go out into the cold to issue a parking ticket, which really makes the viewer wonder how the police will handle the budding criminal gang war that awaits them. They are used sparsely, however, and perhaps could have been given more screen time for comedic effect.
While it lives up to its dark comedic premise, there is a certain gravitas that the loss of a son warrants and Moland seems to move Skarsgård’s character toward vengeance pretty quickly. This may be necessary for the pacing of the film but it feels like a missed opportunity for someone of Skarsgård’s caliber to really be able to convey this heaviness to the audience. His deadpan delivery and serious visage may belie the sadness he carries internally. Moland does hint at this with some scenes between Nils and his wife after their son’s death. It is not a major flaw by any means as the sadness gives way to the rage that he demonstrates in the film. Once the body count starts piling up, it may be easier for the viewer to not to be so enmeshed in the tragedy as it were. Many revenge fantasies are indeed set up for the viewer to empathize with a protagonist who has been wronged in order to cheer them on during their violent retribution. The issue here is that Moland gives the viewer scant time to be able to connect to Nils emotionally.
Over all, the film does offer plenty of laughs in addition to some stand out performances from a great cast. It’s arguably not Moland’s strongest effort but the plot along with beautiful cinematography makes this worth a screening for fans of Scandinavian cinema. Festival goers can hopefully look forward to more well executed (sorry) Scandinavian films such as this one in the future.
