Though he’s a prolific screenwriter with a number of popular arthouse titles to his name (“After the Wedding,” “In a Better World,” “The Promised Land”), the directorial efforts of one Anders Thomas Jensen (including “Riders of Justice” and “Men and Chicken”) are rarer birds in all senses of the term — usually fusing antic comedy with darker genre storytelling and, most consistently of all, the star presence of Jensen’s longtime pal Mads Mikkelsen. All those elements are present and correct in the pair’s latest collaboration “The Last Viking,” so its extreme tonal swings between absurdist farce and hardboiled crime thriller shouldn’t come as any surprise. But they’re disorienting nonetheless: A madcap ride that is diverting but never quite enjoyable, the film finds the silliest and grisliest extremes of the Jensen formula this time fighting each other more than they balance each other out.
Opening Stateside today following an out-of-competition premiere at last year’s Venice Film Festival, “The Last Viking” was a substantial hit on home turf — outgrossing Jensen’s previous features as helmer — but perhaps Danish Oscar selectors doubted its crossover potential: Though shortlisted to be the country’s Best International Feature submission, it was passed over for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin.” It’s certainly an eccentric stew even by the filmmaker’s standards, wrongfooting viewers from the outset with a picture book-style animated opening sequence (bookended at the close) that plunges into apparent Viking lore, telling the story of an ancient king who, after his son lost an arm, ordered the rest of his subjects to sacrifice an arm in solidarity.
