The Last Viking
When they were children, Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas, "Riders of Justice") was tasked by his father (Lars Ranthe) to keep an eye on his brother Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen, "Riders of Justice"), dad finding Manfred's obsession with all things Viking childish, so when the patriarch sees Manfred wearing a Viking helmet in his group school photo, his punishment is so cruel, it leaves lasting trauma. Now, as adults, Anker has just been released from prison for a bank robbery and he entrusted burying the loot to Manfred who claims not to remember where it is on their mother's property and now insists he is John Lennon, reacting violently whenever Anker calls him Manfred in "The Last Viking."
Laura's Review: B
This is writer/director Anders Thomas Jensen's ("Riders of Justice") sixth feature, each comical adventure starring Mikkelsen and Lie Kaas. "The Last Viking" may induce tonal whiplash as it veers from absurdity to sentimentality to brutality and back again, but the message it leaves us with and the method with which it is conveyed is moving. As the brother who wrestles with controlling his anger, Lie Kaas takes Anker from a hard edge to a softened embrace while Mikkelsen's Manfred emerges from delusion with gentle, supportive clarity.
The film opens with an odd but lovely animation in muted neutrals depicting a Viking Chief who makes all the males in his village lose their left arm after his son, Baldur, loses his so that Baldur will not be an outcast, a fable which will resonate. We then witness Anker asking Manfred swallow a key, a request he obeys so quickly it takes his brother aback a bit. Anker quickly tells Manfred about a bag in a locker that must be fetched, then buried on their mother's rural property as the cops move in. Thirteen years later, Anker receives parole after insisting he's gotten over his anger issues and has no idea where the stolen money is, returning home to have his sister Freja (Bodil Jørgensen, "The Green Butchers"), who's been taking care of Manfred, tell him that he should be called John now. Manfred has also been stealing people's dogs. Then Anker's partner in crime, the physically imposing Flemming (Nicolas Bro, "Riders of Justice") arrives, punches Anker in the face, and demands Anker's share of the loot as he's spent his. Anker sets off with Manfred to retrieve his ill gotten gains.
Anker, who clearly has not gotten over his anger issues, is in no mood to indulge his brother, refusing to acknowledge his new, preferred persona, so Manfred simply jumps out of the moving vehicle. At the hospital, a doctor, Lothar (Lars Brygmann, "Riders of Justice"), informs him that Manfred is suffering from dissociative identity disorder and that he knows of another patient who thinks he's Paul McCartney when he doesn't think he's George Harrison (or Hermann Goering) and another who calls himself Ringo Starr, suggesting they get the band back together, but Anker rejects the idea, getting back onto the road with his brother.
Arriving at the old family homestead, now run as an Airbnb by Margrethe (Sofie Gråbøl, "Flickering Lights") and her husband Werner (Søren Malling, "A Hijacking"), things quickly get out of hand when Manfred asks Margrethe why she is married to Werner, who has burn scars on his face, because he is so ugly, causing Margrethe to lash out at Manfred who jumps through a window before Anker can explain his brother's mental issues. Anker will have more problems on his hands when Manfred leads him to dig up things from their childhood, revealing Anker's own suppression of trauma. Margrethe and Werner have also been sniping at each other for their failures, she as a model, he as a fashion designer now writing a children's book for the past five years, and when she figures out why Anker's always digging holes in the forest, declares she will run away with him. Then Lothar shows up with psychiatric patients Hamdan (Kardo Razzazi) and Anton (Peter Düring) to reunite The Beatles! Meanwhile, back in the city, Freja is being mercilessly tortured by Fleming to reveal their whereabouts.
Thomas Jensen still has more up his sleeve and somehow manages to pull all these chaotic strings together, albeit with additional violence. But that violence is worked into his overarching theme revealed earlier in that animation, one which cleverly associates Anker with Manfred and Margrethe with Werner to the Viking Prince Baldur. All this and The Flyihg Beavers in an emotionally rewarding finale.
Samuel Goldwyn Films releases "The Last Viking" simultaneously in select theaters and for home viewing on 5/29/26.
