Flame and Citron
2.5 stars
STARRING Thure Lindhardt, Mads Mikkelsen
DIRECTED BY Ole Christian Madsen
RATED R
02:10
‘
Your student-loan dollars are burning a hole in your pocket and you’re jonesing for explosions and blood-soaked revenge, but you’ve already seen Tarantino’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’ ‘mdash; is there anything worth ditching the first day of class for?
The good news is that Landmark Theaters just started showing ‘Flame and Citron,’ and it’s almost similar enough to ‘Basterds’ to quench your bloodthirst ‘mdash; but there are some caveats.
For one, the movie’s entirely in Danish.
Set in Copenhagen in the middle of WWII, ‘Citron’ is the true story of two obsessed resistance fighters, supported by the UK and the Danish government-in-exile, who together kill dozens of collaborators. But when they realize their cell’s been compromised, their resistance disintegrates into a gory patchwork of revenge and wartime betrayal.
Ruthless pretty boy Flame (Thure Lindhardtv ‘mdash; you wouldn’t know him) takes the vendetta-fueled struggle to tear-jerking, brutally emotional heights. On his way to a troop meeting after being wounded, he walks with a jagged step, his relentless gaze hard and cold. The fact that he hardly mellows when femme fatale Ketty (Stine Stengade) enters the picture sets him apart as a man wholly consumed by intense personal strife.
For all Flame’s intensity, though, his partner is the film’s strongest character. Citron (Mads Mikkelsen, who you actually do know as Le Chiffre in the new ‘James Bond’) teeters so dangerously on razor’s edge between self-pity and mental derangement that he makes the audience uncomfortable. His fumbling attempts at keeping his family together are so inept that one can’t help but feel a tad embarrassed ‘mdash; then gradually horrified ‘mdash; as he ultimately resolves to let his loved ones drift beyond his final grasps.
This isn’t a typical kill-’em-all war drama ‘mdash; no happy balance of family and fighting emerges in the end, and extended scenes of gratuitous street violence are entirely neglected. Rather, this is a true-story movie (at least, never having shot Nazis in occupied Europe myself, it feels true). The direction is never heavy-handed, and most of the tension is found in quieter moments rather than in shouting matches or dramatic camera angles. As a result, the story, the situation, and the actors themselves take center stage ‘mdash; without benefit of a stirring score or overt foreshadowing.
For all that, though, ‘Flame and Citron’ never quite crosses into gotta-have-it territory, for one simple reason: It’s not engaging. The characters are surely compelling, but let’s face it ‘mdash; intricate character development is only captivating at a soap opera’s pace. Without adrenaline-pumped action or any semblance of humor, the film rapidly deflates (such is the fate of many a slow-moving, subtitled arthouse flick).
Hate to say it, but if it’s a question between going to your first class and throwing down a ten-spot for this one, you might actually want to grit your teeth and sit through the lecture.
‘