The Last Viking

Its humane message is potent even though it comes in the offbeat package of this gleeful, violent but entirely successful dark comedy.

A big-hearted fable of self-actualization, tolerance, and togetherness.

The film’s unpredictability and refusal to be categorised mirrors its protagonist. Beneath the chaos is the idea that, as human beings, we contain multitudes. And this isn’t a bad thing – the film argues that the only thing that can define us is those around us and how they treat us. If we’re weird but everyone else is also weird, doesn’t that make all of us normal?

With The Last Viking, Danish star, screenwriter and occasional director Anders Thomas Jensen (Adam’s Apples, Riders of Justice) brings another one of his blackly comic, absurdly violent tales to the screen with enviable ease.

The definition of an oddball, Manfred / John is a brilliant character for Mads Mikkelsen to experiment with; mostly, it’s a role that’s not physical in a way that showcases the actor’s plasticity. He’s a bespectacled middle-aged man who’s timid and quiet until he’s volatile and hysterical––a surprisingly infantile character that brings out of Mikkelsen something we’re not used to seeing.

A madcap ride that is diverting but never quite enjoyable, the film finds the silliest and grisliest extremes of the Jensen formula this time fighting each other more than they balance each other out.

Jensen’s story of a flinty ex-convict (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and his brother (Mads Mikkelsen) seeking buried treasure while evading a criminal heavy (Nicolas Bro) feels disjointed and elusive, though not without its charms.