Scandi comedy: They’re funny that way
Scandi film comedy is hitting the big time — and it’s tailor-made for Brits
What if we were to cast five of Scandinavia’s most talented dramatic actors, including Mads Mikkelsen, as half brothers with a cleft lip, and have them bash each other half to death with a variety of blunt objects in a derelict sanatorium overrun by farm animals?
The Danish director Anders Thomas Jensen is not exaggerating when he describes the breathless pitch for his latest movie, M.e.n. & Chicken, as “a hard sell”. With its mixture of Three Stooges-style slapstick and The Island of Doctor Moreauish scientific shenanigans, the Danish-language film – which also stars David Dencik (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Soren Malling (The Killing, Borgen), Nicolas Bro (The Bridge, 1864) and Nikolaj Lie Kaas (The Idiots, Follow the Money) – is a delightfully deranged comeback vehicle for Jensen, 44, who hadn’t directed a movie in almost 10 years.
In Denmark, it was a hit, but it will also be looking to do well in the UK later this month.
Read the full review here
