Director:Â Anders Thomas Jensen
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen,  David Dencik,  Nikolaj Lie Kaas,  Søren Malling,  Nicolas Bro
Rating:Â 15
Running Time:Â 102 mins
Release Date:Â 15/07/2016
Anders Thomas Jensen is a director who has established himself in his native Denmark as a force to be reckoned with. His short fiction film ELECTION NIGHT won an Academy Award in 1999 and he has worked with some of the top Danish talent, amongst them Susanne Bier and Lone Scherfig (AN EDUCATION).
Having not been too familiar with his work, I went into MEN & CHICKEN with some positive feedback from an associate who said it had a good reaction at last year’s London Film Festival.
I am somebody who these days tends to not read too much about a film before I see it. Certainly, like a lot of fans, I loathed to read anything about STAR WARS – THE FORCE AWAKENS and what was refreshing about the release of that example was that social media was regarded as off-limits to millions, who genuinely wanted to see the film and experience it properly in the right setting.
All I will say is that MEN & CHICKEN has provoked the same kind of joyous first-time experience I felt watching the likes of the Coen Brothers’ BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) and Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL (1985)
In the production notes given to me before the screening, the director claims in his statement that he regards the film as containing a ‘sterilized narrative, where you can move in between genres’ and it is something that he has used as an ‘intention to build on the Universe that he has ‘worked with’ in his previous three films, FLICKERING LIGHTS (2000), THE GREEN BUTCHERS (2003) and ADAM’S APPLES (2005). Based on what I have seen in MEN & CHICKEN, I will certainly back track and experience his other work.
I would predict that if the characters were guests of THE JEREMY KYLE SHOW, even he and his Aftercare team would have their hands full with this bunch of dysfunctional degenerates, who provide a delicious dark comic tale and have their fair share of issues. Like the TV show, it is all about conflict and resolution, but done to a more entertaining tone.
Brothers Elias (Mads Mikkelsen) and Gabriel (David Dencik), suffer the sadness of their father’s passing in hospital. They discover a video tape of their father that they play, which reveals that they were in fact adopted.
They decide to look for their father and trace his whereabouts to an isolated island, where they find themselves amidst a dying community and track down the house where they father allegedly lives. It is here they meet a group of guys living in their father’s house who they try to convince are related as brothers, but it is not without it’s problems, as the men, Josef (Nicolas Bro), Gregor (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) and Franz (Soren Malling) are a rather strange family unit…..
I am going to leave the plot as set-up, as MEN & CHICKEN is a film that will certainly polarise and provoke your mindset. I certainly had to think a lot about what this film represents and expresses emotionally, but the story and relationships are so well co-ordinated and structured with great moments of humour and suppressed anger that the overall pay-off is all the more satisfying.
Mikkelsen is a total contrast to his CASINO ROYALE turn as Le Chiffre and as with his performance as THE HUNT, emerges as one of Denmark’s most versatile talents. Here he invests Elias with a similar level of contained frustration a la Basil Fawlty and is served well by Dancik as Gabriel, who provides a sane counterbalance amidst an increasingly bemusing situation.
Like BRAZIL, you do emerge from it knowing you have experienced something extraordinary. It isn’t a film that falls into a particular genre and at one point it evokes memories of certain classic examples of specifics of a genre, but it’s handled skilfully and with honesty that makes the predicament of the characters all the more tragic.
MEN & CHICKEN is not an easy film to categorise and last year’s THE LOBSTER made a valiant attempt to take a left-field idea and execute it with satisfaction, but the idea and intention was lost in a mish-mash of ideas and confusion. This film manages to retain consistency amidst the strange community it portrays. It has a lot to say about brotherly love and parental perception. A European classic.
Verdict
