Flame & Citron (Sunday, August 2, 2009) (105)

I guess ultimately all Nazi-occupied countries will have a movie about their national resistance movement during the war (Paul Verhoeven has had two Dutch ones - Soldier of Orange and Black Book). This film is Denmark's entrant into that class. It shows the story of two of the most famous anti-Nazi fighters of the country, nicknamed Flame and Citron.

Flame (whose name comes from his shock of orange hair) is a young guy in his early 20s who is a bit wild and very vengeful. His partner, Citron, is more methodical and internal and not as comfortable with his role as a murderer. The two get orders from Danish resistance channels (from U.S. and British forces through a contact in Stockholm) to kill Danish Nazis. Ultimately, they find their orders are being filtered and tainted by a middle-man who has his own political agenda. When they start killing German Nazis, they raise eyebrows in the SS and become hunted themselves.

This is a compelling story and reminds me a lot of Soldier of Orange. It's rather episodic in structure and moves along at a pretty quick pace. The two main actors are great particularly Mad Mikkelsen as Citron (who looks sweaty and full of a near-palpable angst throughout the film). Mikkelsen's previous work in After the Wedding and Casino Royal are just the tip of what he gives in this performance.

The costumes and art direction are also wonderful here showing Danish fashion of the era, with wonderful cars, suits and dresses. The whole film has a blue-green quality to it - suggesting a coldness in temperature and emotions as well.

I would have liked a bit more background for the characters to know exactly why they were doing what they were doing. This was the focus of Black Book - the reasons why the resistance did what they did. Were these Danes simply jingoists who hated that Germans had invaded their homeland or were they upset that the Germans were killing Jews? At one point, Flame says he had been dating a Jewish woman around the beginning of the war and when she was taken by the Nazis, he decided to fight them. This is fine, but seems rather thin for a man as passionate about the resistance cause as he seems to be. For Citron, we know almost nothing about his reasons.

Overall a good and beautiful looking movie. It's shortcomings are forgivable as it is a dynamic story with great characters.

Stars: 3 of 4