{"id":959,"date":"2026-05-29T12:37:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=959"},"modified":"2026-05-29T12:37:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:37:53","slug":"the-last-viking-review-eccentric-danish-crime-comedy-casts-mads-mikkelsen-way-against-type","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=959","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Last Viking\u2019 Review: Eccentric Danish Crime Comedy Casts Mads Mikkelsen Way Against Type"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tThough he\u2019s a prolific screenwriter with a number of popular arthouse titles to his name (\u201cAfter the Wedding,\u201d \u201cIn a Better World,\u201d \u201cThe Promised Land\u201d), the directorial efforts of one Anders Thomas Jensen (including \u201cRiders of Justice\u201d and \u201cMen and Chicken\u201d) are rarer birds in all senses of the term \u2014 usually fusing antic comedy with darker genre storytelling and, most consistently of all, the star presence of Jensen\u2019s longtime pal Mads Mikkelsen. All those elements are present and correct in the pair\u2019s latest collaboration \u201cThe Last Viking,\u201d so its extreme tonal swings between absurdist farce and hardboiled crime thriller shouldn\u2019t come as any surprise. But they\u2019re disorienting nonetheless: 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.<\/p>\n

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\n\tOpening Stateside today following an out-of-competition premiere at last year\u2019s Venice Film Festival, \u201cThe Last Viking\u201d was a substantial hit on home turf \u2014 outgrossing Jensen\u2019s previous features as helmer \u2014 but perhaps Danish Oscar selectors doubted its crossover potential: Though shortlisted to be the country\u2019s Best International Feature submission, it was passed over for \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin.\u201d It\u2019s certainly an eccentric stew even by the filmmaker\u2019s standards, wrongfooting viewers from the outset with a picture book-style animated opening sequence (bookended at the close) that plunges into apparent Viking lore, telling the story of an ancient king who, after his son lost an arm, ordered the rest of his subjects to sacrifice an arm in solidarity.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe metaphorical relevance of this introduction does eventually become clear, though audiences aren\u2019t likely to keep it in mind, given how much other business Jensen\u2019s script soon gives them to contend with. A second, more on-topic prologue introduces slick thief Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, another fixture of Jensen\u2019s films) in the midst of a heist that is going wrong; with the police on his tail, he asks his naive brother Manfred (Mikkelsen) to bury the loot. 15 years later, Anker is freed from prison and returns home to find Manfred a new man: John Lennon, to be precise. Manfred, you see, has been diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, and has convinced himself that he is the late \u2014 but now living \u2014 Beatle. Address him otherwise, and he\u2019ll act out in ever more alarming ways, even hurling himself out of a moving car at one point.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are, as you might imagine, any number of difficulties to having your brother claim to be John Lennon \u2014 though the most pressing one for the free-but-not-reformed Anker is that Manfred professes no memory of where he hid the money. With gang bosses breathing down Anker\u2019s neck, that necessitates a visit to his best guess regarding its location: the brothers\u2019 childhood home in the woods, now a touristy Airbnb run by a bickering couple (Sofie Gr\u00e5b\u00f8l and S\u00f8ren Malling) with no sense of what they\u2019ve signed up for. Also along for the ride, for reasons that make marginally more sense on screen than they do on paper, is Manfred\u2019s new shrink Lothar (Lars Brygmann), as well as two similarly delusional psychiatric patients \u2014 recruited to join Manfred in forming a Beatles tribute band (or, in their minds, the original Beatles) for therapeutic reasons.<\/p>\n

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\n\tPlus there are further characters, subplots and flashbacks rambling around in this slightly overstuffed affair: The brothers\u2019 long-suffering sister Freja (Bodil Jorgensen), in particular, gets short shrift. But Mikkelsen\u2019s drastically against-type performance as the damaged, seemingly gentle but volatile Manfred consumes much of the oxygen here. Under an unflatteringly greasy mop of curls, he clearly relishes getting to play the oddball for a change, while Kaas is left to hold down proceedings with tough-guy stoicism. Mikkelsen gives a star turn in a character-actor part, so committed to its own arrhythmic delivery and herky-jerky physicality that you can\u2019t take your eyes off him.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sheer bravura strangeness of his work makes \u201cThe Last Viking\u201d worth a look even as the film goes from offbeat to plain off-the-rails. The extreme violence of the thriller component \u2014 visited with disproportionate force upon women \u2014 simply never sits comfortably with the sunny zaniness coloring a study of mental health and healing via Fab Four cosplay, to the point that when the film most actively reaches for the heart, we wonder if we\u2019re about to be pranked. The singularity of \u201cThe Last Viking\u201d is to be celebrated, on several fronts; the world would be a more unnerving place with more films like it.<\/p>\n

Read more SXSW London Guide: The 9 Best Panels and Premieres to Catch, From Michelle Obama to the Russo Brothers to a New Virginia Woolf Film<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\t\u2018The Last Viking\u2019 Review: Eccentric Danish Crime Comedy Casts Mads Mikkelsen Way Against Type<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

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\t\tReviewed at Soho Screening Rooms, London, Aug. 19, 2025. In Venice, Toronto, Palm Springs festivals. Running time: 116 MIN. (Original title: “Den sidste viking”)<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \n(Denmark-Sweden) A Samuel Goldwyn Films release of a Zentropa, Zentropa Sweden, Film i V\u00e4st production. Producers: Sisse Graum J\u00f8rgensen, Sidsel Hybshmann.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector, screenplay: Anders Thomas Jensen. Camera: Sebastian Blenkov. Editors: Anders Albjerg Kristiansen, Nicolaj Monberg. Music: Jeppe Kaas.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nMads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofie Gr\u00e5b\u00f8l, S\u00f8ren Malling, Bodil J\u00f8rgensen, Lars Brygmann, Kardo Razzazi, Nicolas Bro, Peter D\u00fcring. (Danish, Swedish dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mads Mikkelsen’s turn as a Beatles fan with dissociative identity disorder is the best reason to watch Anders Thomas Jensen’s ‘The Last Viking.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[985,986,987],"class_list":["post-959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-anders-thomas-jensen","tag-mads-mikkelsen","tag-the-last-viking"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The Last Viking\u2019 Review: Eccentric Danish Crime Comedy Casts Mads Mikkelsen Way Against Type - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=959\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018The Last Viking\u2019 Review: Eccentric Danish Crime Comedy Casts Mads Mikkelsen Way Against Type - 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