In Order of Disappearance

Well first of all let me say that I certainly did enjoy this movie. What I don't understand is the fact that some people consider it as a funny crime comedy. Maybe it's because I don't understand the language that I missed some subtle humor or so, I don't know, but the fact is that I for sure didn't laugh once with this movie. The story might not be very original but the actors all did a great job so I can't complain about that. Stellan Skarsgård showed us again that he is a good actor. The story is just another normal citizen searching for revenge after the death of his kid. All in all I thought it was well played and filmed with nice nature shots as well.

Most movies about revenge tend to focus on the spectacle of cruelty and bloodshed, delivering a film filled with somewhat morally justified killings, but no meaning behind them. This one is not like them. Like other Scandinavian masterpieces, In Order of Disapperance delivers a deep and meaningful story. In Hungary, the distributor tried to advertise the movie as a dark comedy, however, besides a few morbid jokes, there is nothing funny about it. Instead, the script tries to focus on the conflicts and the person tragedies behind the murders and the shootouts, which makes it not just a great gangster flick, but also a great drama. In Hans Petter Moland directing style, every gesture, look, sentence has a meaning, and this is the reason, why for example the main character can function in the story without merely saying any words. Of course, this impact is helped by some performances by Skarsgard, Bruno Ganz and Pal Sverre Hagen.

My only problem with this movie was that it has a somewhat slow pace, and because of that, sometimes it struggled to keep up my attention, but nonetheless, it's a quality piece and I'd definitely recommend it.

First Headhunters, now this.. The films that keep coming out of Scandinavia, and in particular Norway, are hard to beat. Headhunters was most definitely one of my favourites of last years and this is also very high on the list.

For me it's the (fairly) unknown actors, the absolutely shameless and inventive humor and I guess that beautiful landscape. And of course the great, very well known, Stellan Skarsgard for whom this seems like it's especially made for. He is perfect and such a great character that you will be rooting for him long after the film is finished. He makes the film, but it probably would have worked with another actor as well, as the story is so original and highly entertaining.

Absolutely loved it and can't wait to see it again. Hollywood: HANDS OFF 8/10

Finally watched it last night. Instead, I got a film that quickly grew on me as the body count mounted (hence the Englsh title). An earlier reviewer said it was like Fargo, but I would add a touch of an absurd Kill Bill body count. At the end of the film I was laughing out loud. A great dark comedy.

"In Order of Disappearance" (2014 release from Norway; 115 min.) brings the story of Nils, a Swedish guy longtime resident of northern Norway. As the movie opens, Nils and his wife are getting ready to accept the "Citizen of the Year" award of the local chamber of commerce. Nils, who runs a snow removal equipment business, accepts the award with humility and dignity. In a parallel story line, we see a couple of young men getting kidnapped and one of them eventually dies. It turns out to be Nils' son, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting mixed up in a local drug gang. Nils knows his son was not an addict and decides to look into the circumstances of the death of his son... At this point we are 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland in which he collaborates with Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, who plays Nils. The movie was billed on Google Movie Times as a "comedy" and in a sense it might be one, but a very dark one, if that. I found the movie to be a so(m)ber crime drama, in which Skarsgård plays "Joe Sixpack" who is out for revenge of his son's death. Sure there are chuckles here and there, but to me the film resonates a lot more on the level of how an average guy turns out to be a systematic and determined revenge-seeker. The setting of the film, somewhere in northern Norway, is gorgeous, and the use of the snow blowers and snow removal equipment is almost balletic.

This movie is two years old now, and for some reason just popped up in the theater. I saw it this past weekend at the E Street Landmark Theater in Washington, DC. The matinée screening where I saw this at was attended very nicely. No idea why it has taken this long to get into US theaters, but better late than never I suppose. In the meantime I read somewhere that this movie is going to be remade by Hollywood, but without Skarsgård. Say it ain't so! If you are in the mood for a foreign language crime drama with undertones of a dark, if not black, comedy, you cannot go wrong with this. "In Order of Disappearance" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!