Les enquêtes du département V: Délivrance

This is the third installment in the Department Q series. Saw this few days back on a DVD. It begins with a message in a bottle from disappeared children. The movie starts as a kidnapping drama n then turns into a serial killer thriller n later explores the importance of faith. Some may compare this to Prisoners, True Detectives S1 n Marshland. Nonetheless it is a very solid crime thriller. There is sufficient tension n good amount of atmosphere. The cinematography was gorgeous. This time the movie has some decent action sequences too. Trains, helicopters, car chase. Our two leading detectives, Nikolaj Lie Kaas n Fares Fares acted good. The guy who played the serial killer acted well. He is the creepiest and most effective villain of the Department Q films.

As I had seen Kvinden i buret and Fasandræberne and liked them both, it is logical that I set to Flaskepost fra P as well. And I am contented again, even a bit more than with the other two. Following the main leitmotif, there are witty dialogues between the two policemen about faith and religion, and more suspense scenes where the outcome is unpredictable. Perhaps the wrongdoer's identity was revealed too soon, but his motives not revealed until the end and great performances of all stars of the film generated yet a pleasant and intense film experience, based on a renown book by Jussi Adler-Olsen (well, I have not read them, but I am not a person vigorously comparing related books and films, with a trivial conclusion that "the book was much better" :))

So, another good creation within Scandinavian Noir, and another reason and opportunity to acquaint yourself with Nikolaj Lie Kaas' talent.

It might seem that there is a decline in the movies, but this is still rock solid. I can only imagine that the book is even more than that. It has characters from the previous movies (and books of course) and has a case that is pretty strong. You don't have the urgent feeling and the playfulness it had in the previous movies. As dark as they got, you always had something light in them.

That's almost missing entirely here. There's still character moments, but strings and things are being said and left on the sideline without giving them a resolution. It's a shame, but the movie is packed so much, that some things have not the punch they deserved to have and should have had. Still the movie and especially the villain are great. And it's not so much about who it is, but why he is and where and how to find him ...

This is the best of the three films in my opinion, it is not darker as such, off course the fact that its about kids getting taken is just not very nice to think about, but the cases they are working on are dark and we are beginning to know the characters and their different persona's and they really capture many great aspects of the characters and their interaction with other people.

I haven't read any of the books, but based on my wife's explanation, this is also the best adaption of the books, they are still changing things and making it more viewer friendly, but that's how it is.

Serial killers are always strange and dark, but this one is very well portrayed by Pål Sverre Hagen, he really seems like this nice guy, good looking (a Norwegian Ryan Gosling), well spoken, calm and trustworthy. But deep down he is just a bad bad man, with a terrible past and a twisted mind.

Location, seating & time: Dagmar, Nordisk Film, Vesterbro, Denmark - Bio 2, row 6 seat 1 & 3 - 22.03.2016 at 16.30

This is the best chapter among the three, in my opinion. "Department Q" is a honest, low-flying franchise; it does few things, but does them very well. It's some kind of a very very good, 2-hours long tv episode. It keeps you hooked till the end (that's something very important in crime fiction), while entertaining you with good photography, good acting, and some tongue-in-cheek humor.

A special mention for the lead actor, that delivers an outstanding interpretation here, something worth of Hollywood in my opinion.

Recommended for a relaxing evening at home, it's fiction with no flaws. On a side note, some sequences in all three movies are violent or gory and can be disturbing to some.