FILMS
FILMS
Vigilantes in Denmark, prison dramas in Côte d’Ivoire, a boy of beauty, women in love and migrants in limbo
Mads’ men: Nikolai Lie Kaas, Nikolas Bro, Lars Brygmann and Mads Mikelssen in Riders Of Justice
RIDERS OF JUSTICE Mads Mikkelsen has long been Scandinavian cinema’s poster boy for maleness in crisis – from Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher films to Thomas Vinterberg’s recent Another Round. In the latter, he depicted sensitive midlife ennui going boozily off the skids. But his latest film Riders Of Justice has him in a more traditionally macho role, with the Viking facial hair to prove it. Made by Anders Thomas Jensen, who previously directed Mikkelsen in the eccentric Men And Chicken, the film follows the aftermath of a subway bomb attack in which a woman is killed. Obsessive statistician Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) examines the facts, connects the explosion with a neo-fascist biker gang and persuades the dead woman’s husband – soldier Markus (Mikkelsen) – to join him on a mission to bring the gang leaders to justice.
Things get entertainingly and brutally out of hand, but while Riders Of Justice works compellingly as a twisty, suspenseful crime thriller, there are some more unexpected things at stake in Jensen’s devious black comedy. There’s a clever philosophical strand, to do with chance and the intricate, hidden causes of everything – all leading back to a Christmas wish in Estonia. Then there’s a droll, oddly touching comedy about the adoptive extended family that finds itself hiding out at Markus’s house, including his teenage daughter, a rescued rent boy and Otto’s massively dysfunctional sidekicks, who are posing unconvincingly as psychotherapists. A scowling Mikkelsen essentially plays the straight man, but behind that thicket of beard he’s clearly having as much fun as everyone else.