The Last Viking
A mixture of black comedy and crime thriller, this could only be the work of the Danish writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen.
Image courtesy of Picturehouse Entertainment.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
This is the sixth feature which Anders Thomas Jensen has made from a screenplay of his own. However, it is only the third of them to be distributed in the UK where he is perhaps still better known for the films which he has written for others to direct. Had we seen more of the pieces on which he had the directorial credit we would more readily have appreciated the remarkable fact that all of them have had Mads Mikkelsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas in the leading roles. It can be taken as clear evidence that they are attuned to the quirkiness of Jensen's writing which stood out in Men & Chicken (2015) and Riders of Justice(2021) and does so again in The Last Viking. It seems highly likely that all six of the works he has undertaken personally bear what to judge by those three is a trademark fondness for blending elements so different that when brought together they ought not to work. When at his best Jensen fuses them so adroitly that the mixture takes off, but there are also times when the gamble does not work – and both can happen within a single film.
If Men & Chicken was at heart a black comedy of pronounced eccentricity, it also included violence that became sinister despite suggesting eventually that the piece could be read as a moral fable. No less varied, Riders of Justice was part thriller, part comedy and part playful philosophical enquiry. The contrasted elements present in this new work are even more pointed and widespread. Bookended by an animated fable, The Last Viking is the story of two brothers, Anker played by Kaas and Manfred which is Mikkelsen's role. In the opening section Anker carries off a bank heist together with Flemming (Nicolas Bro) but with the police onto him Anker arranges for his brother to hide his share of the stolen money. We then jump forward fifteen years to take up the story when Anker’s jail sentence ends. He returns to his siblings – there is also a sister named Freja (Bodil Jørgensen) – only to realise that Manfred’s mental health has deteriorated to the extent that he can no longer remember the exact spot where the loot is buried.
We learn that while Anker was in jail Manfred has come to believe that he is John Lennon, insists on being called John and resorts to self-harm whenever he is called by his real name. When diagnosed it is put down to dissociative identity disorder born of earlier childhood trauma – his father (Lars Rathe) had reacted against the child's desire to dress as a Viking and had beaten him brutally. His wish to be accepted as being John Lennon derives from the fact that as John he feels that he is liked, something for which he has a desperate need.
It will be realised that these early scenes already have many balls in play: the robbery provides drama but, while Manfred is never mocked on account of his state, the absurdity of his identification with Lennon whom he does not resemble at all brings in a comic element and his regular threat to self-harm is presented as black comedy. One might expect that this mixture would immediately come to grief, but it doesn't. For one thing Mikkelsen and Kaas and the other players know that it all has to be played straight and they do it really well. Equally crucial is the pace adopted since the speed of the thing helps one to accept the changes in tone. Just to add to the oddity of all this, Jeppe Kaas provides an appealing music score which often features the piano. In theory it fits neither with the crime drama nor with the madcap humour, yet it is decidedly pleasing. Indeed, I would say that the first third of The Last Viking shows Jensen's balancing skills at their very best.
The film’s middle section moves us to a new setting, the country home of the brothers’ late mother now owned by a couple who are often at odds with one another, Werner (Søren Malling) and Margrette (Sofie Gråbøl). It is nearby that the stolen money was buried and seeking it is the aim in going there. It is also a place where Anker hopes to release Manfred from his obsession about his identity. Decidedly offbeat medical advice given by Lothar (Lars Brygmann) suggests that if instead of having his fantasy challenged Manfred is able to play it out then that may lead to a cure. On this basis others too are brought to this rural location in the form of two psychiatric patients. One of these is Anton (Peter Düring) who believes that he is Ringo and the other is Hamdan (Kardo Razzazi) who switches back-and-forth between seeing himself as George and as Paul. That he also at times takes on a third identity as Björn Ulvaeus of Abba means that, on seeking to rehearse songs by The Beatles, they may find that Hamdan has instead led them into ‘Thank You for the Music’.
This part of the film adds to the absurdist side of the movie and makes the music a central feature for a while. It is not unentertaining but it lacks the energy and variety of the earlier section. Furthermore, if passing references to IKEA (Anton is Swedish) are amusing enough, mention of the Holocaust as a kind of running gag is surely an inappropriate outrage. The film’s last third is again wider ranging adding to the drama (there are flashback revelations about a key incident in the childhood of the brothers) and to the black comedy (the brothers are tracked down by Anker’s disgruntled criminal associate Flemming who wants the hidden cash for himself). Although the arrival of Flemming heightens the black humour, it also brings with it a touch of grand guignol while injuries inflicted on two women are too close to real-life nastiness to play well in this context. These further tonal shifts are often uneasy although late on there is a rousing performance of ‘Twist and Shout’ and, if the film has a message, it is an encouraging one in praise of individuality (“What you see matters, not what others see"). Well-acted throughout by everybody, The Last Viking is undoubtedly uneven veering as it does between the misjudged and the miraculously effective. But as mixed bags go it is certainly an intriguing one.
Original title: Den sidste viking.
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofie Gråbøl, Bodil Jørgensen, Søren Malling, Lars Brygmann, Nicolas Bro, Kardo Razzazi, Peter Düring, Lars Ranthe, Joel Hesse Johansen, Alfred Røssel Læsø.
Dir Anders Thomas Jensen, Pro Sisse Graum Jørgensen and Sidsel Blenlkov Screenplay Anders Thomas Jensen, Ph Sebastian Blenkov, Pro Des Nikolaj Danielsen, Ed Anders Albjerg Kristiansen and Nicolaj Monberg, Music Jeppe Kaas, Costumes Rikke Simonsen, Animation A. Film Production.
Zentropa Entertainments/Film i Väst/FilmFyn-Picturehouse Entertainment.
116 mins. Denmark/Sweden. 2025. UK Rel: 26 June 2026. Cert. 15.
