Les Enquêtes du département V : promesse

On an island in Denmark where the sun seemingly always shines, a young girl is found dead on the roadside. Years later a chief of police shoots himself in the head due to some inner demons created because the closed case was never solved. Huh? It turns out that absolutely nothing can justify this overreaction, but I guess the story needed some kind of shock opener.

This movie is based on a book from overrated Danish novelist, Adler-Olsen, who somehow got away with penning one of the dullest protagonists ever created, detective Carl Morck, who feels compelled to reopen the case, but just ends up witnessing things, as he strolls along from point A to point B, always speaking in very short sentences and in the end doesn't solve a thing, because all answers are just handed to him (and the audience) along the way, without him doing the slightest effort.

Seasoned director, Ole Christian Madsen, at least tries his very best to make this run-of-the-mill story come sort of alive with a pacing that makes sure you don't fall asleep. But when your protagonist is the least interesting character, there's isn't a whole lot you can do to avoid it ending up as somehow of a mess.

Detective Carl Mork (Ulrich Thomsen) and his cold case department are back in action in this sixth installment for the big screen of the successful novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen and script written by Jakob Weis. The department has to investigate the death of a young girl who was hit by a car, named Alberte. The case that was falsely closed as a traffic accident is reopened when Christian Haabersat (Peter Mygind) , an old friend and colleague of Carl Morck from his years at the police academy, commits suicide in front of the guests at his farewell party, haunted by the memory of Alberte. The killing, officially written up as a traffic accident, has connections to both the local Police precinct and a cult of sun worshipers from where young women have vanished without trace for years. Mørck must solve the case and confront his past to move forward with his fiancée. Along the way, Rose (Sofie Torp) is tasked with finding the connection of some murders to a weird cult. It's not long before she's on the run from those who intend to kill her because of what she knows.

Police thriller in the purest Nordic style with strong suspense, emotion, plot twists, action enough, and including a dark photography. Ulric Thomsen gives a decent acting , he's a prestigious actor with a long career that includes both cinema and TV, such as: The good traitor, Ambassador Kauffman, Face to face series,Brothers, Celebration, , Blacklist and Banshee series, he once again plays the tough investigator Carl Morck. Ulric was already the protagonist of the fifth installment of the saga, on this occasion he has to investigate the death of a girl who was found hit by a car and dead on a tree.

In this sixth installment, the people in charge of giving life to the brave and surly Carl Morck is Ulrich Thomsen and his faithful assistants change, being now played by the unknown: Sofie Torp as Rose and Afshin Firouzi as Assad. This film adapts a successful novel, ¨Den Grænseløse¨, the sixth and best-selling book written by Jussi Adler-Olsen, to the big screen. This procedural thriller is uneven but professionally directed by Ole Christian Madsen and has a script by Jakob Weis, replacing Nikolaj Arcel, who had written the storyline for the four previous novels and adapted the first installment of 'Milennium', another of the most important Nordic sagas in history. Director does it European way, showing sharply in the dark cinematographic approach within the story.

This is the sixth adaptation, most of them concerning a relentless search and murder investigations carried out by the members of the Q Deapartment that take them deep into the undercurrent of corruption, abuse, ambition, greed and malice that hides beneath the surface of the prosperous Scandinavia. The first of sextet starred by the great protagonists Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares who signed a four-film deal, matching the number of Department Q novels written by Jussi Adler-Olsen that had been published at the time of filming. The saga is as follows: ¨Kvinden i buret¨ or ¨The Guardian of Lost Causes¨ (2013) by Mikkel Nørgaard with Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Sonja Richter. ¨Fasandreperne¨ or ¨Pheasant Killers¨ (2014) by Mikkel Norgaard with Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pilou Asbæk. ¨Flaskepost fra P¨ or ¨A Conspiracy of Faith¨ (2016) by Hans Petter with Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pål Sverre Hagen, Amanda Collin. ¨Diario 64¨ or ¨The Purity of Revenge¨ (2018) by Christoffer Boe with Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Søren Pilmark. Despite being extremely succesful both critic and public, author Jussi Adler-Olsen was unhappy with the adaptations of the first four novels of the series and thus entrusted the film rights to the next books to another production company, resulting in the change of cast in this latter: ¨Marco effekten¨ or "The marco effect¨ (2021) by Martin Zandvliet with Ulrich Thomsen as Carl Mørck and Zaki Youssef as Assad.

Unless there's anyway we can eject author, Jussi Adler-Olsen (from further involvement), and reinstate Zentropa, and, more specifically, Nikolaj Arcel, to Department: Q's cinematic universe again... then this'll probably be my last one.

Adler-Olsen is churlish and triflin; like Stephen King when he didn't agree with Kubrick's interpretation of The Shining (1980).

Afshin Firouzi is an improvement over their last Assad -- even if he's little more than an exposition-absorbing sidekick here; But now it's as if Ulrich Thomsen has realized these new D:Q installments won't live up to their predecessors, because whatever progress Thomsen initially demonstrated in 2021's Marco has faded and is just lackin now.

Really, Rose (Sofie Torp) is the principle sidekick here, since she's allotted the most screen time/dialogue (after Thomsen). She performs ably, but her arc is pedantic and at times antithetical (to her character development).

There are at least two characters whose development is marooned to the film's first half.

Most unfortunate is the story: the premise is intriguing and ultimate-reveal is equally appealing, but the execution is hopelessly rote (they're plainly trying to pantomime Fincher with only Joel Schumacher swagger). The first four films easily demonstrate some of the best procedural facets (of the sub-genre), while still facilitating convincing cold case thesis or agreeable whodunit subplots, but the author has gone out of his way to wipe the slate and insist on cinematic universe-dover (with these last six properties). Unfortunate, these later entries aren't worth your time (and hopefully won't be here for long).

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It's only appropriate Netflix is distributing Adler-Olsen's US adaptation, because these (Marco Effect, and now, Boundless) definitely aren't worthy theatrical exhibition (unlike his first four films, e.g. Under Arcel's pen and Zentropa's oversight).

Once again, the lead actors in the movie have been replaced with some new ones. Rose has become more hardcore and less charming. Not sure if it's part of wokeism.

The movie contains a completely irrelevant scene where a janitor harasses Rose and she practically rips his balls off. The scene has nothing to do with anything.

This movie is the worst in the Department Q series. I miss more twists and surprises, and I miss more investigative work in the film. If this is the standard for the upcoming Department Q films, then I won't be looking forward to the next ones in the series.

"Fasandræberne" is still the best Department Q film.

Let's face it...Department Q died when they changed the cast after the fourth movie. This latest movie just doesn't change that fact. I am very disappointed! The plot is thin and the excitement and humor is absent. I was not entertained and I have no idea where Carl Moerch is in the story. It's more about Rose than about Carl. Assad is a weak sidekick.

To me it looks like a low budget film. But first of all the biggest problem is the cast. Apparently the producers know this since they changed the cast for both Rose and Assad since the last movie.

Bring back Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares og Johannes Louise Schmidt. They are in another league.