The Absent One

[kevinknapman]

The second film based on the Department Q novels following The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Absent One is a gripping and surprisingly brutal thriller that sees the return of the odd couple cold case detectives Carl Morck and Assad (dismissed by colleagues as 'the Arab and the Drunk').
When a retired police officer who accosts Carl outside police headquarters demanding he look into his twin son and daughter's murders 20 years earlier commits suicide, Carl is determined to solve the, already apparently solved, case.
This leads the duo into a world of boarding schools, untouchable tycoons and a damaged homeless woman who could be their most important witness.

A hit in its native Denmark, it's a shame this series hasn't made more of an impact in this country. A surprise perhaps when you consider how popular Nordic Noir has become over here with BBC4's Saturday night slot and Channel 4's recent Walter Presents...strand.
It's an incredibly tense and stylish film, impressively directed once again by Mikkel Nørgaard. The acting duo of Nikolaj Lie Kaas (currently on UK tv screens in Follow the Money) and Faris Faris as Carl and Assad certainly play a large part in ensuring it remains an engaging and emotionally involving story and a lot of humour comes from their chalk and cheese relationship which certainly stops the film from being too unremittingly bleak.
A decent supporting cast includes the ubiquitous Pilou Asbæk (from Borgen to Eurovision song contest presenter and everywhere in between) while both Sarah-Sofie Boussnina and Danica Curcic are very good as the teenage and adult versions of the troubled young woman at the heart of the investigation. Johanne Louise Schmidt is also a welcome addition to the Department Q team as new secretary Rose.

As I mentioned before this is often rather brutal stuff at times and might be a bit too strong for some but it's still a thriller worth tracking down. It's familiar fare perhaps that may not break new ground and the identity of the real murderers is fairly obvious early on but this is a superior example of its kind.
Here's hoping we don't have to wait too long for the third instalment Conspiracy of Faith which broke a 15 year Danish box office record for its opening weekend when it was released at the beginning of March.

[D-Fens]

Didn't think it was as good as the first one. Assad barely did anything, didn't even make coffee? Towards the finale I started to wonder why these were the baddies again and maybe I'd forgot the murder. Only for the murder to be 'revealed' at the end, the impact was lost. And the climax doesn't happen if Carl just follows the rules, he breaks them for no reason to create the messy ending for no reason.

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The young girl should have had a hand in the murder too, that would have been a surprise and then everything would have made more sense.

[TimS]

I personally really liked it. Nothing really new for the genre but the lead characters are quite endearing really. Looking forward to watcing the next one.

[missgotty]

I never saw the prequel so saw this as a stand alone film. I liked it. I thought it was going to be predictable with the well used drunk cop solving murders scenario, but the storyline kept surprising in places making it a little less predictable. I'll be watching the first film soon and judging by the feedback it should be a good film too.

7/10