The Keeper of Lost Causes

Wounded after a search he leads goes wrong, inspector Carl Mørck returns to active police service. Concerns about his being traumatized force his superiors to put him in charge of the unsolved case division, department Q. Considered a routine desk job, Mørck and his partner Assad stumble on to an unsolved case that might be more than first thought. After the apparent suicide of a beautiful political aide appears to contain missed clues, their investigation leads them to a web of murder, sex and revenge.

All to often you find yourself faced with something that leaves you very uncertain. When I first saw the notes for this film, I did wonder if it was a TV series pilot that was being dressed up as a Hollywood release. It was based on a popular book, had been produced in Denmark and was solidly presented as gritty. Scandinavian crime series are still in vogue and this has caused a glut of murder mystery shows of varied quality. So the first thing was to hope that this would do away with these tired associations and to my viewing pleasure it did. Kind of.

The film is a mix of quality elements and a few little niggles. For the quality elements ( as I always like to start with positives) its lead partners are superb and both deserve another film if only for their chemistry alone. They bond, live with each other and seem to be united in their quest. It does slightly grain on me, when you always have the moody cop and his problems but Assad brings a balance here that is extraordinary.
The acting in the film is well rounded, with no false notes and everyone gives solidly convincing performances. This bolsters the motivation of central characters and brings the conviction to the audience. The murderer is a well drawn and effectively constructed person, whose back story I found dark and real . It also finally has a real Muslim character and not the lazy caricature.

The film also looks stunning and sounds amazing. Its drained images draw you in and add layers of atmospheric depth. This also provides tension and drama, it is as if the best pieces of the classic Hollywood thriller or seventies style paranoia cinema has been replicated perfectly here. You could imagine also that they have studied films from the genre and taken notes. Which to their credit has supported them and not drowned them. The extremely well crafted shot compositions are both bold and clever, without feeling aggressive or false. these heighten the dimensions of the cinematography.

However the film has some niggles for all these quality elements. For one, it didn't linger on scenes, its reduced time meant it had to speed through them. This lead sometimes to ideas not being utilized fully and simply being dumped into a scene in order to keep things going. Some pieces of the story were illogical and held no water. Like the crash scene, which underpinned so much but didn't... when you think about it.

Even with this mixture of good and bad, this film will satisfy a single viewing. It will craft its story, which will hold you from start to finish. It will grip you, make you care and though expected, grateful for the end. Trust me here when I say, though as it ends it makes you a little conscious of all its flaws, it is worth your time. If only for one night....