“Wallander: The Revenge” is sweet [MOVIE REVIEW]
Krister Henriksson as Kurt Wallander in Wallander: The Revenge. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
“Wallander: The Revenge” tells one story with multiple dimensions. Kurt Wallander, chief inspector in a rural Swedish police department, seems to have his life under control going slowly toward a peaceful retirement in his new, cherished home by the sea; something that had been a lifelong dream. Celebrating his birthday with friends, the party is interrupted when the electricity goes out, not just at his house but in the whole town of Ystad. What they don’t know yet, but will soon find out, is that the transformer station servicing the whole area has been blown up with carefully timed, carefully attached incendiary devices.
The bombing corresponds with demonstrations by town Islamists against an art exhibit depicting the image of the prophet Mohammed. It doesn’t take much for the town to start suspecting Arab terrorists and pointing fingers (and more) at the demonstrators. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the town’s mayor is murdered, execution style.
Increasing tensions, two inspectors from the Swedish equivalent of homeland security arrive as well as a battalion of soldiers. Ystad is crawling with strangers with itchy trigger fingers and it’s up to Wallander to mobilize his forces and solve the crimes before all civil liberties are pummeled or worse.
Although an excellent murder mystery, “Wallander: The Revenge” is much more because it is a successful illustration of mass hysteria, the rush to judgment against a minority opinion, and the group fear that has become commonplace in the Western world whenever terrorism is suspected, especially of the Arab variety. Friends are suspected, imaginations run wild, emotions prevail over logic and innocent people are hurt. This particular act of sabotage is far more complicated than it appears, although the results are exactly what the perpetrator sought.
Krister Henriksson is Wallander and has been appearing in the Swedish television series by that name since 2005. Lucky television viewers outside of Los Angeles have already been exposed to Henriksson’s Wallander as part of a PBS series called Masterpiece International Mysteries and it is truly outstanding. The British version starring Kenneth Branaugh is weak by comparison (actually, I find the British version not just weak, but unforgivably boring and Brannaugh considerably less than compelling.) Henriksson’s face is a roadmap of too much past drinking, too little emotional attachment, and, in true cop fashion, too little room for the human foibles of others. He and the other officers are, in some ways, as frigid as the Swedish winter, although their humanity does eventually find its way out of the freezer.
Directed competently by Charlotte Brandstrom, Hans Rosenfeldt wrote the script based on Wallander creator Henning Mankell’s original story. If there is a criticism of “Wallander: The Revenge” it is that it still seems like a misplaced episode of the television series. But this is only a criticism as relates to Sweden because we don’t get the series and if the only way to experience this excellent series is through this film, then more power to it. It is pure “Wallander,” it gives a new audience a glimpse at the wonderful Krister Henriksson, and the theme raises interesting questions that deserve pondering.
Opening June 8 at the Laemmle Music Hall.