Nordkraft (AKA Angels In Fast Motion) Review

As regular readers of this site are no doubt aware Ole Christian Madsen's Nordkraft is a film I have been anxiously waiting to see from the very moment I first spotted the trailer. The chance finally came yesterday. And the verdict? Somewhat mixed. Is it as stylish and gritty as the trailer implied? Oh, yes. And it's filled with interesting characters and solid performances as well. The problem? Madsen has very obviously watched Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream a fistful of times and this film owes such a heavy stylistic debt to Aronofsky's addiction elegy that it becomes difficult to view Madsen as anything other than Aronofsky-lite. The trademark perspective shots abound and Madsen even goes so far as to make a few obvious nods to Requiem's soundtrack. It's a shame, really, because Madsen has obvious talent and is working from such solid source material that if he had found his own voice rather than borrowing Aronofsky's he may very well have crafted a little classic here rather than a film that will always live in the shadow of another.

Madsen's film tells three stories set in the drug culture of Jutland. Although the principal characters from each of the three appear briefly in the others' stories their presence is incidental at best. This isn't so much an attempt to tell interlocking tales as it is a look at three distinct tiers of drug culture in Denmark.

On the bottom rung there is Steso. A young, proudly admitted drug addict, Steso is on just about everything you can possibly imagine. Literally. He is rail thin, his arms covered with abscesses and boils. Consuming books and music as voraciously as his vast array of pharmaceuticals Steso plays like a character straight out of Kerouac, a man in love with experience rushing from one high to another, no matter what form that high may take. It's certainly far from a conventional life, but it works for him until his greatest high - a fragile girl who has been his sweetheart since childhood, the only lover he has ever known - checks out of a mental hospital and tells Steso that she can't take his lifestyle anymore, she's found someone else and they're through. This sends Steso on a viscious downward spiral ...

On the middle rung is Maria, the girlfriend of a dealer and often used to transport large quantities of drugs across the country. Estranged from her family she took up with her boyfriend and is now completely neglected - he prefers to practice tattooing on pig hide to having any sort of interaction with her - and adrift in her world. Her world is crumbling until she meets Hossein, a former Iranian soldier with a shadowy past her offers her an alternative.

On the top rung is Allan, who at first blush doesn't appear to belong in the film at all. Horribly scarred down one side of his face after being trapped in a burning ship Allan has returned home intent on pursuing a normal life, wanting nothing more than a straight job and a girlfriend. Allan, however, has a past, a past that includes Frank - a top rung speed dealer intent on forcing Allan back into the life he abandoned years before and willing to use violence to do so.

Madsen's entire cast is solid and while the film may lack the incredible character depth of the similarly themed Pusher trilogy he certainly gives each of his characters enough backstory to have some serious depth. His camera work is kinetic and, for the most part, perfectly appropriate. The soundtrack, too, is solid. The film's entire problem is that it just can't shake itself free of the shadow of Requiem. Madsen seems so keenly aware of that earlier opus that he just can't resist lifting techniques but also seems more than a little intimidated by it, a fact that makes him try a little too hard from time to time, as in the unnecessarily explicit introduction of Maria.

As a plus for fans who want to take a look at the film the Danish DVD is enormously English friendly. The entire menu system is available in several languages and all of the special features - including the directors commentary - are English subtitled.

In the final verdict Nordkraft is a very good film and if you've not seen Requiem For A Dream you may even consider it a great one. Not the knockout I was hoping for, but still worthwhile.