(Norway/Sweden, 116 min.)
Dir. Hans Peter Moland, Writ. Kim Fupz Aakeson
Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Bruno Ganz, Pål Sverre Hagen
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| Stellan Skarsgård in In Order of Disappearance. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing. |
“Instead of justice, I only got retaliation and escalation
of violence in return,” says director Hans Peter Moland on his experiences with
revenge. “So if you can’t have justice, you may as well have some fun.”
Moland serves the cold dish of revenge in the Nordic black comedy bloodbath In Order of Disappearance, but what sets the film apart from other revenge thrillers, including the recent Norwegian-Canadian co-pro Hevn, is that the film draws upon the futility of revenge to create a messy cycle of violence. In Order of Disappearance satirizes the snowball effect of violence as one kill brings another. The film puts a revenge-seeker in an ironic position as snowplough driver Nils Dickman (Stellan Skarsgård) receives the title of Man of the Year from his community only to learn soon thereafter that his son died of a drug overdose. A good parent and an altogether decent man, Nils decides to uphold his values and name by cleaning up the community.
Fargo meets Dirty Harry as the bodies pile up and
the snowbanks of Norway become speckled with blood. In Order of Disappearance doubles down on black humour as violence
breeds more violence and one carpet-wrapped corpse after another goes hurtling
down the fjords and into oblivion. Nils develops an insatiable bloodlust and
decides to kill every hoodlum who played a hand in snuffing out his son, who,
as the film reveals early on, was collateral damage in a turf war between
Norwegian kingpin The Count (Pål Sverre Hagen) and his Serbian rival Papa
(Bruno Ganz). Players on either side of the conflict just start bumping off
folks at random in an effort to get revenge on one another, and the film leaves
some inept cops scratching their heads and hurling chunks in the snow as they
wonder what happened to their idyllic winter wonderland.
Skarsgård often plays the baddie, but he’s a force of darkly
funny gallantry as Nils becomes a renegade anti-hero. The film draws on his
rugged everyman persona to create a stalwart of a community with whom one can
initially sympathize and find humour, just as it plays upon Hagen’s pretty boy
charm to create an uptight yuppie of a kingpin. The Count is an all-out loon to
Nils’ even-tempered anti-hero. The baddies, meanwhile, are all bigots and
hotheads with hilariously myopic views of the world. They’re boys with toys.
Morland’s direction favours the comedic irony of this
violent affair as the humour both undercuts and amplifies the carnage. The film
is a disgusting mess of violence as Morland makes the audience watch the kind
of depravity revenge breeds. With each kill, though, In Order of Disappearance punctuates the
carnage with a title card commemorating the life lost. It’s a fun, thrilling,
and chilling reminder that everyone loses in the game of revenge.
In Order of
Disappearance opens in Toronto on Friday, August 26.
