Maybe you’ve seen the last four collaborations with Mads Mikkelsen and director Anders Thomas Jensen, or maybe this is your first experience with their work. Either way, “Riders of Justice” is more than just a Danish action film, it is so creative that it finds its way into the mainstream film world here in the USA.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Mikkelsen, who easily switches back and forth between Danish films and American films, was just in the film that took home the Oscar for best international feature film.
“Riders of Justice” is the kind of crime story we want in America. It’s somewhere between David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” and The Coen Brothers “Fargo”. While Mikkelsen (“Rogue One”, “Doctor Strange”) is clearly great as always, the focus is on the writing and unpredictability of this story.
After the tragic death of his wife Markus (Mikkelsen), a soldier in Afghanistan returns to Estonia to comfort his traumatized teenage daughter Mathilde (Andrea Heick Gadeberg). After the funeral, he is approached by two humble tech junkies, Otto (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Lennart (Lars Brygmann), who present him with evidence that his wife’s death was not an accident.
Markus is a man of few words, he is full of anger and violence, and the news that someone is responsible for his tragedy gives rise to his anger. Otto and Lennart get another hacker friend Emmenthaler (Nicolas Bro), who completes their nickname “Three Henchmen”.
The accused party is a local gang known as the Riders of Justice, and a witness who is supposed to testify against the leader of the group died along with Markus’ wife in the accident.
The trailer or even my description of the film doesn’t do it justice. In the trailer, you won’t see how sarcastically funny the movie is. Sometimes it is funny to laugh out loud without being stupid. The same goes for violence. It’s a terrifying tension synced with the lighter moments.
Mikkelsen is no stranger to villains, or in this case unlikely characters. In this way, the script and its performance entice the audience to take root for it after repeatedly dealing with each situation.
Mikkelson’s work in American films is typically the role of the bad guy. He will replace Johnny Depp on Fantastic Beasts and will be Indiana Jones’ enemy in this upcoming episode. It is in his non-English language work that he excels as an actor i.e. “The Hunt” or more recently “Arctic”.
Gun training has never been as hysterical as “Riders of Justice”. The carefully placed comedy in the film certainly paid off. In fact, along the way, the movie gets so insane and random that the element of revenge on which everything is based fades into the background.
Kudos to the director and writing team for selling an action movie that allows audiences to invest more in the characters than in the shootings or violence. You will have a hard time finding a more satisfying new release in English or otherwise this week.
Final thought: Repeated American action films might learn a thing or two from “Riders of Justice”.
Dustin Chase is a film critic and associate editor for Texas Art & Film, based in Galveston. visit texasartfilm.com.
