A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Last Viking”. (2026, 4.5*, 15).
My good friend and Flickering Dreams colleague the Reverend Andy Godfrey raved about this film, so when it came up at my local Everyman – one night only, and fortunately not the England World Cup match – I grabbed the chance to see it. And it was most definitely worth it! This is the sort of film I need to store in my mind to rebut those sort of ridiculous comments I see online of the “there are really no novel films made any more”. For this is an anarchic, very funny but also very brutal slice of black comedy that I think will earn a place as one of my films of the year.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
In Denmark, Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) is arrested for a bank robbery but not before he lets his mentally-challenged brother Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen) know where he’s stashed the loot. He instructs him to go and retrieve it from a train station locker and bury the money in the woods near their old family home. 15 years later and released from prison, Anker returns to find Manfred now thinks he is John Lennon and insists on being called John!
Certification:
UK: 15; US: NR. (From the BBFC website: “Strong violence, bloody images, domestic abuse, threat, language.”)
Talent:
Starring: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Mads Mikkelsen, Sofie Gråbøl, Lars Ranthe, Nicolas Bro, Lars Brygmann, Søren Malling, Bodil Jørgensen, Kardo Razzazi, Peter Düring.
Directed by: Anders Thomas Jensen.
Written by: Anders Thomas Jensen.
Running Time: 1h 56m.
Review:
Positives:
- I know I talk about the ‘6 laughs test’ for a comedy and this smashes that. But normally, in reality in the cinema, the laughter is normally kept inside my own head. In this film I’m afraid it burst out into audible guffaws. No helping it! This is SUCH a funny film when it wants to be. Particularly hilarious is what happens when anyone calls Manfred by his real name instead of “John”!
- Mads Mikkelsen is just amazing in the role of Manfred. When we are first introduced to Manfred it genuinely took me a minute before I went “oh wow, that’s Mads Mikkelsen”. He really disappears into that character most beautifully and plays it to perfection. The rest of the cast are also really great particularly Nikolaj Lie Kaas as Anton, with serious anger issues, Kardo Razzazi (who can really sing!) and Sofie Gråbøl as the hilariously narcissistic ex-model Margrethe, wife to the “ugly” Werner (Søren Malling). Margrethe who simply assumes that every man she meets wants to run off with her and fuck her. (Her story arc is particularly painful in this film.)
- The themes explored by the film are really interesting. We start with an animated tale about a viking king whose son’s arm is lost in an accident. In order not to make his son feel second best, he orders every man, woman and child to have that same arm lopped off. (Queue gruesome animated graphics of babies being snatched from cots and mutilated!) “If everyone is broken, then no-one is broken”. When turned to the subject of mental health, the maxim of “if you can’t beat them, join them” could be similarly applied! And in a way, that is what happens here. In order to treat Manfred’s mental condition, expert psychiatrist Lothar (Lars Brygmann) thinks it would be a good idea to collect together other Scandinavian mental patients who think they are the other members of The Beatles to “put the band back together”. Hamden (Kardo Razzazi) thinks he is Paul/George (in a BOGOF deal!); and Anton (Peter Düring) thinks he is Ringo. Hilariously, Hamden also has occasion to think he is Bjorn from Abba; Iron Man; Davy Crockett and Heinrich Himmler (“Don’t mention the war!”).
- But all of the insanely funny comedy, in that wonderfully dry, Scandinavian way (think “Falling Leaves“) is interlaced with some truly wince-inducing violence, mostly meted out at the hands of Anton’s heist accomplice Flemming (Nicolas Bro): who in the Western remake must surely be played by Russell Crowe! There is also a backstory into the childhood of Anton, Manfred and their sister Freja (Bodil Jørgensen) which is quite distressing. This film has ‘Triggers’ written all over it. While this succeeds in making the movie highly unpredictable it also makes it ‘ and also ‘not for everyone’ (see below).
- The film really cleverly mines some very fine running jokes: Manfred has a tendency to want to continually steal dogs; there’s Margrethe and her constant references to her own good looks; and Lothar seems totally obsessed with IKEA, bringing it into just about every conversation!
- There is also a funny reference to a ‘gang of beavers’ which I really found quite a slap around the head. I volunteer at Stonehenge and was hosting visitors in the Neolithic House reconstructions there, just a few hours before seeing the film, talking about all the artefacts on show etc. I was talking to a young girl of about 7 or 8 about how many blows with a flint-axe it would have taken to fell an average size tree (about 5,000, if you’re interested) and she suggested that the people of the time should have “trained a gang of beavers” to do that work for them. Spooky!! Sometimes you wonder if the world is trying to tell you something!
- Musically, the film is really fun with a great score by Jeppe Kaas and some really great songs. I really wanted the film to end on a musical high-note…. and it did. I was very pleased!
Negatives:
- One of the film’s positives is – I think – also one of its negatives. The violence meted out by Flemming is really, really extreme! I would really LOVE to take the Illustrious Mrs Movie Mann to see this one, as I think she would love, love, love the comedy aspects. But I also think she would be extremely unsettled by the violence, particularly the man-on-woman violence and the flashbacks to parental punishments. Which is a shame. Like “Saturday Night Fever”, this almost needs a ’12’ version of the film re-edited, with all of the violence taken out to make it appeal to a broader audience.
- I did see one of the twists in the story coming: but it was still good.
Triggers
Oy vey! Where do I start with this one. There is a lot in here that might upset a lot of people, so if you are a sensitive soul you might was to do your research on the film at doesthedogdie.com here before watching it. Themes include parental abuse, abuse of a mentally disabled person, animal abuse and violence against women. There is also humorous reference to the Holocaust.
Summary Thoughts:
Oh my – there is inflation rampant in One Mann’s Movies this month. I normally try to very much limit my use of any rating above 4 stars, but that’s now two films in the last week that I’ve rated a 4.5 (the other being “The Invite“). This was a real surprise: a beautifully told tale with lots of heart and a whole heap of surprises. A film that I will be thinking about for weeks I think. Top notch.
If you can get a chance to see it at the cinema then do so, but to be honest you might need to wait for streaming now.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rr6oA5F02U.
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