Director: Peter Flinth
Cast: Malin Crepin, Richard Ulfsater and Bjorn Kjellman
Rating: (M)
2 stars (out of 5)
Featuring the escapades of intrepid crime reporter Annika Bengtzon (Malin Crepin), Last Will is the first instalment and, frankly, it lacks any of the visual panache or gritty storytelling Scandinavian thrillers seem to have in spades.
While attending the Nobel banquet to cover the event for her newspaper, Bengtzon witnesses the murder of a Nobel committee member. As the news agencies clamber over the convenient explanation that an al Qaeda fringe group is responsible, our heroine thinks otherwise.
Bengtzon is prohibited from writing anything about the murder, but this is like a red rag to a bull. Not only does she start following her investigator's instincts, she manages to juggle a dysfunctional marriage with a new role writing for the entertainment pages of the paper; all the time staying one step ahead of the hapless police.
As fraught with implausibility as the narrative is, there might still be redemption with the injection of a steely character in the vein of Lisbeth Salander or Blomkvist. Not so. Crepin might have the classic Swedish good looks, but she gets lost in this environment. Her co-stars fare no better. There isn't enough spine-tingling anticipation to keep an audience engaged, and, for a Scandinavian thriller, far too much light.
Best thing: Aerial shots over a wintry Stockholm.
Worst thing: The patently obvious outcome.
See it with: An invested interest in Swedish crime sagas.
- By Mark Orton
