Sometimes even the most idiotical plans – such as committing a robbery who knows that you will be caught and imprisoned for 15 years, but to ask your odd duck by a brother to hide half of the prey under a tree in childhood you no longer own – can go wrong.
But to be fair to Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), many of the most important components actually work in his plan. The do get out of prison in 15 years with good behavior and money is More or less where he expected it to be. But much can change in one and a half decades, and even the most brilliant criminals could hardly be expected to predict the development as a younger brother (Mads Mikkelsen) Process his trauma to lose you by being so convinced that he is John Lennon that he compulsively tries suicide when his legal name is mentioned. Or the emergence of a thriving holiday rental industry that turned your childhood home into a popular weekend trip with frustrating extrovert hosts.
So starts ”The last Vikings“Another beautiful dark comedy about adult siblings from” Men & Chicken “director Anders Thomas Jensen. The director’s Frequent collaborators The cash and Mikkelsen have spent enough time on the screen to be completely credible in a sibling relationship formed by 30 years of bad vibes. Mikkelsen’s Manfred (but dare you not call him anything other than John) has become socially challenged as long as anyone can remember, and his insistence in carrying Viking Regalia to school as a child made him a simple goal for mobs. The burden to defend him (from both cruel classmates and an angry father who could not understand why his son could not be normal) always fell on Anker, which had the reverse effect of hardening him while softening his brother to a man who does not know how to exist without protecting others.
However, fifteen years of separation led to growing even further apart, and once a symbiotic relationship has evolved into something much more knit. When Anker comes from prison, he expects the harsh part of his life to be over. But just when he wants to kick back and enjoy his hard stolen wealth, he goes into a minefield. Manfred greets him with about 100 dinner rolls (his favorite, when he is served in measure) and an explanation that he will only be taken up as John Lennon. Prison does not prepare exactly a middle -aged man for such social shades, but the increasing pressure to pay one of his old employees forces Anker to navigate in the choppy water to secure the money that Manfred buried for him.
The two men go to their childhood home, now an Airbnb that is driven by a couple whose marriage hangs of the thinnest of threads. Margrethe (Sofie Gråbøl) always thought she was too hot to marry Werner (Søren Malling), and to see him waste decades of his life that left his dream of starting a clothing line followed by another seven years of trying to think of a topic for a children’s book has not exactly given the spark of attraction. A difficult dinner makes it clear that both duo feel that they are getting the short end of the stick, with Margrethe discouraged by Manfred’s abrasive behavior and Anker who counteracts the marital difficulty he is forced to witness.
What could simply have been an unpleasant weekend becomes much more memorable with the arrival of Lothar (Lars Brygmann), a psychiatrist who previously treated Manfred. He believes he has a solution that will turn the troubled sought-after-beatle back into his normal self: form a band consisting of all other mental patients who think he is a beatle and lets them practice and put on a show. There are only two other such men in Europe, but fortunately you think he is both Paul and George, so there is enough to put a band as long as he has plenty of time to switch between instruments.
“The Last Viking” compiles elegantly the riding of the situation (one of the funniest side lots is Werner’s eager Beatle fandom and his obviously sincere belief that this provisional band will deliver high quality covers) with trauma that emphasizes the ridiculous events. Manfred insistent in forgetting his own identity becomes a way to explore our remarkable collective ability to forget things that we would rather not remember. And after starring in six of Jensen’s films together, Kaas and Mikkelsen rely on their hard -acquired chemistry to explore all the small cracks in the relationship without ever rejecting Gimmickry.
The film Takes its name from a story that Manfred relied on as a way to deal with child bullies, about a tribe of Vikings who each cut one of his arms to get a brother who lost his arm in battle feels less alone. Like almost everything like someone in “The Last Viking” attempt, the action is well -meaning but bad advice. That tension is what bridges the gap between pro-beatles sentimentality of “Yesterday” And the bloody heist aftermath of “reservoir dogs” to give the emotional core of a winning movie: being yourself can expose everyone around you to unnecessary difficulties and temporary violence, but there is no reason not to do it anyway.
Rating: B+
“The Last Viking” premiered at 2025 Venice International Film Festival. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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