“A film about ordinary people placed in bizarre scenarios.”

Family: can’t live with them, can’t live without them – or at least this is the adage that best describes The Last Viking, the most recent directorial outing by Anders Thomas Jensen, returning after a brief hiatus with yet another peculiar but very entertaining dark comedy. As with most of his previous works, the film explores the relationship between a group of eccentric characters, intended to reflect a more off-kilter version of contemporary Danish society. In this case, it’s the story of two brothers – one a hardened ex-convict trying to get a second chance after years in prison, the other a shy, introverted man who would much rather build puzzles than be involved in his brother’s schemes. However, they must work together to retrieve a buried bag of money that was hidden before the protagonist went to prison, which is made even more difficult when it was his brother who was responsible for concealing the loot, only to have developed a form of amnesia that poses quite a challenge to the pair. As we’d expect from Jensen, The Last Viking is a film about ordinary people placed in bizarre scenarios, each moment reflecting the director’s curiosity about the human condition. He doesn’t quite hit the target throughout, and there are some significant flaws, but as another addition to his canon of darkly funny and unexpectedly heartwarming comedies (which essentially began with his masterpiece Adam’s Apples nearly twenty years ago), there are enough merits here to keep the audience at least mostly entertained.

The Last Viking is not overly complicated, establishing a key set of themes that it intends to explore, and then following quite a traditional path to bringing these ideas to life. The core of the story is that two brothers who could not be more different are forced to work together to solve a common problem, eventually becoming closer in the process. The odd couple scenario is a key narrative structure, tried and tested over the decades, and this is where Jensen begins and ends the story, only from different perspectives. He doesn’t add all that much to the conversation, but instead finds time to develop some ideas that feel somewhat engaging, which is all he seemed to be interested in doing with this film. Despite the title, The Last Viking isn’t an in-depth, satirical overview of the legacy of ancient Nordic populations, which essentially just exist as the source of a few amusing jokes, designed to supplement the relatively conventional narrative. There is a lack of focus that results from the film being slightly too long (twenty minutes could have been removed and still allowed it to leave an impression), but taken for what it is, some effective moments scattered throughout the film are enough to warrant many of Jensen’s decisions.

Unfortunately, there are certain points where The Last Viking begins to falter, primarily because it introduces too many characters – it starts as a buddy comedy between two brothers, but the entire second act is built around a ragtag group of misfits that enter the story without any reason beyond adding more humour to an already funny film, and they ultimately don’t serve much of a purpose other than elongating the middle portion, where the story is weakest. The scenario with the two brothers (which the first and third acts are built around) is by far the strongest, and credit for this must not only go to Jensen for creating these characters, but also to the stellar work being done by Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Mads Mikkelsen, who are entirely at home in this film. It’s not surprising that they would be a perfect match for this story, considering they have both starred in every one of the director’s previous feature projects, often alternating when it comes to who is chosen to lead the film. In the case of The Last Viking, Kaas is the primary focus, whereas Mikkelsen is supporting him – and based on our expectations, we’d be forgiven for thinking the roles would be inverted, with the more reserved Kaas seeming like a better fit for the subdued Manfred, while the already eccentric Mikkelsen makes much more sense as the brooding hero. Nonetheless, they’re doing good work that salvages the film almost immediately. Mikkelsen is the standout, because of his efforts to take a challenging character like Manfred and make him seem fully three-dimensional (rather than resorting to the same bland conventions we normally find when actors play neurodivergent characters), giving him the chance to stretch his skills and show that his versatility has not shifted as he’s become more recognisable and beloved as an actor.

The Last Viking is a very enjoyable film, but nonetheless a minor work. It is squarely decent, too interesting to allow some mediocre elements to weigh it down, but also not doing enough to elevate its ideas beyond the most obvious narrative structures, with much of the film being quite predictable. It’s a mainstream comedy that does aim for the obvious on one too many occasions, which can be slightly frustrating for those who appreciate the film’s willingness to venture into some truly dark places (although it doesn’t fully surrender to the cynicism that would have considerably elevated it), and remains more appealing as an upbeat comedy than the kind of scathing satire it seemed to be at the outset. Nonetheless, it’s a solid effort that gives two fantastic actors the chance to showcase their skills, working with a director who implicitly understands how to handle their different approaches to acting, often forcing them to play against type in some sporadic moments in which there is a lot of promise lingering beneath the surface. Well-made and very entertaining, The Last Viking overcomes some tonal challenges and narrative shortcomings to be a decent effort, one that we can appreciate as a crowd-pleasing comedy, while also lamenting that it wasn’t a more bleak, unsettling work that would have leaned further into the inherent absurdity, rather than following conventions down to the smallest and most inconsequential detail.