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Markus (Mads Mikkelsen) is a deployed soldier returning home to take care of his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a subway accident. The only way he knows to cope with trauma and pain is by reacting violently. At home, he finds Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg) his daughter, whom he does not understand. Those two do not do much to help each other, until a small group of misfit computer and math geniuses find Markus and tell him that his wife's death was the result of a deliberate attack. The unlikely team then launches a revenge expedition that will bring many surprises.
In an interview to CineEuropa, director Anders Thomas Jensen explained that his movie builds a universe that questions the meaning of life. He adds that there are different ways of reacting when there is no response to the question "Why?" and that revenge is one of them. Jensen explained that there are three different layers in his story: a drama, an action movie and an unbridled comedy. He built his film so spectators can at times laugh at something totally crazy then feel a completely different emotion. He wants people to be unsettled, asking themselves if they should laugh, and if they do, should they be embarrassed if the next scene is really dark.
Mads Mikkelsen, one of Denmark's best-known actors, is a moving pillar of locked-up grief. All he knows is to toughen it up. A kind of Danish Hulk, he does not know where his strength can take him. Mathilde, his daughter, tries to make sense of her mother's death through finding a logical string of events, and a foundational occurrence that could explain it all. Otto, the math whiz, who was also involved in the accident, is not better adjusted than Markus. He too, along his two friends Lennart and Emmenthaler, go through life carrying enormous pain that they each mitigate in their own way. Seeking revenge is a catharsis for the four - Mathilde has no part in it - and at first it gives them meaning. But an interesting twist brings everything on its head.
This dark and definitely adult movie is highly entertaining, fast paced, and carried through by an excellent cast. Mikkelsen (that IFS aficionados will remember from "The Hunt") has a very powerful presence that immediately sets the tone of the movie. Facing him, Mathilde, still exhibiting the soft features of childhood, takes her place with strength. The three nerds, serious misfits, add the element of a tragic-comedy as awkward and deeply wounded human beings, balancing Markus' deep dark personality.
The movie is finally somewhat optimistic as these troubled individuals manage to bond and help each other, in their bizarre ways. It also questions the frailty of human testimony especially when powerful emotions interfere. It shows that it is convenient to overlook details when a hypothesis fits what we want desperately to believe; or to paraphrase the Skeptics Society's founder Michael Shermer, "We marshal the facts to fit the beliefs we already hold."
IFS's founder Efi Lubliner highly recommends that people wanting to see the movie at the Orinda Theatre purchase their seats in advance. To observe the COVID-19 restrictions, the film will play at the middle size theater restricting attendance to 50 people at each screening. There will be three screenings per day at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; no screenings during the week.
Tickets can be purchased at www.eventbrite.com/e/international-film-showcase-riders-of-justice-tickets-151742555067
Reach the reporter at:
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA