Doing the right thing can be murder for The Keeper of Lost Causes
THE Keeper of Lost Causes: A cold case detective becomes obsessed with what was thought to be an open-and-shut case of suicide in this engrossing Danish crime drama.
Leigh Paatsch
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THE Keeper of Lost Causes is an engrossing Danish crime procedural based on the international bestseller by Jussi Adler-Olsen.
Nikolaj Lie Kaas stars as Detective Carl Morck, a gifted cop whose career is close to finished after a rudimentary stake-out became a near-death experience for all involved.
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Banished by his superiors to a basement underneath Police HQ, Morck is instructed to close as many cold cases as he can. Not with any use of his considerable investigative skills, mind you, but with the quick stroke of a pen.
As you would expect, a hard-nosed traditionalist like Morck, is soon defying orders and peering most intently into places his bosses would rather he didn’t.
Together with his immigrant Syrian offsider, Assad (Fares Fares), Morck becomes obsessed with what was thought to be an open-and-shut case of suicide five years earlier.
A few small details do not add up. Morck and Assad believe they have a possible homicide on their hands.
Without the knowledge of the powers-that-be, these two mismatched policemen ditch their desk jobs, and hit the open road to find the truth.
Devotees of painstakingly forensic Danish TV crime storytelling such as The Killing will find The Keeper Of Lost Causes quite rushed by comparison.
Though this is a fair criticism, the film is quite adept at covering its tracks, thereby allowing all big reveals to retain their shock factor.
(Stay away from the trailer, however, if you don’t want to know too much in advance.)
The Keeper of Lost Causes (MA15+)
Director: Mikkel Norgaard (Klown)
Starring: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Sonja Richter
Verdict: Three stars. Finding new heat in an old cold case
Originally published as Doing the right thing can be murder for The Keeper of Lost Causes
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