A scene from Jackpot.
The background
Jo Nesbo’s a bestselling crime novelist: a story of his has been made into a film, Jackpot,(Arme Riddere) directed by Magnus Martens and starring Henrik Mestad, Kyrre Hellum, Mads Ousdal and Marie Blokhus. It tells how the hero, a born loser who manages a Christmas tree factory, finds himself underneath a fat woman – a dead fat woman no less – in a sex shop. It’s not quite as sylish as Headhunters, say critics, but it does have its tongue firmly in its cheek.
The humor sits uneasily with the violence
“The violence seems tonally familiar,” said Catherine Shoard in The Guardian. And there’s a “faint Fully Monty feel to the backstory,” which gives the humor a “less easy fit.” There’s “lashings of crim-bickering and jauntily scored arterial spurting.” For “Scando-gore addicts unsated by the current glut on TV.”
The plot’s tangled, but it’s enjoyable
It’s got an “offbeat noir scenario,” said Mike McCahill in Metro. It’s basically like “a subtitled Ealing comedy,” and features “the unconventional use of a tanning bed.” It’s “been knocked out fast and on the cheap, with tongue firmly in cheek.” You’ll find “severed body parts are tossed around with macabre glee.” The “tangled plotting barely merits thinking about … but it delivers a knowing, pulpy enjoyment.”
A winning combination of comedy and thrills
It goes at “breakneck speed,” said Filmoria. The cast, though “unknowns outside of Scandinavia,” are “well chosen and enjoyable to watch.” Kyrre Hellum “gives a nice turn as the winmpy-whiny and unlikely hero Oscar.” It’s a “winning combination of comedy, action and thrills.”
Predictable, if you know the Coen Brothers and Tarantino
It is “overly familiar,” said Clickonline, but it’s “watchable.” Things are “predictable, especially if you have even a nodding acquaintance with the films of the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino.” It has its “stylish moments and lavishes plenty of attention on the scenes of gore.” It doesn’t have “an original bone in its body, but uses the established format wisely enough to be entertaining.”
Watch the trailer here
