Journal 64

O melhor ou o segundo melhor da série. Reforçado por uma questão sensível e muito atual na Europa, que não quero revelar (aparece no filme como um enredo de seguimento, que retoma completamente o seu dinamismo e aumenta a sua seriedade). (08/10/2018)

It took three films for Department Q to find its film identity. After the contradictory and screenplay clumsiness of the previous films, this is finally a decent combination of a whodunnit detective story and a social thriller, which is driven forward by its two central characters. It has a strong, great pace and only a few moments of partial clumsiness. In addition, the involvement of the current social storyline is very, very skillful. It’s a Scandinavian Noir champion. (26/01/2019)

The Scandinavians are back with their fourth adaptation of a bestselling novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen, starring the excellent duo of Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares. Fortunately, you don’t need to be familiar with the previous installments to enjoy this one. Twelve years later, three mummified bodies are found behind a wall in an apartment, sitting at a table with their entrails on the table, but the case gets much bigger and more complex. Very suspenseful, well acted, strong filmmaking, the twists and turns at the end are impressive and the atmosphere is properly bleak. This is what the Scandinavians are really good at, and when good material is available it goes without saying. 80% (27/02/2019)

Penso nas partes anteriores da série como adaptações de livros modelo muito mais complexos difíceis de distinguir, ligeiramente acima da média, cujos enredos criminais geralmente sofriam do facto de o espetador estar sempre um passo à frente do par de investigadores nos papéis principais, e que nunca tentaram nada mais profundo do que a procura padrão dos culpados de um caso antigo, em suma, de filmes de género decentes. Isso agora muda com a quarta parte, de longe a melhor da série, cujo enredo, embora começando com a descoberta obrigatória de três velhos cadáveres e a busca do seu assassino, depois aumenta enormemente para proporções insuspeitas, incluindo uma conspiração envolta em acontecimentos reais, paralelos com a campanha MeToo, o tema da igualdade num mundo multicultural, e uma crítica ao tratamento institucionalizado das «mulheres caídas». Os personagens passam finalmente por algum desenvolvimento, suficientemente substancial para que o sempre triste Carl não seja o mesmo mal-humorado anti-social, a história tem uma profundidade insuspeita e situações brilhantemente delineadas e bem construídas, a narrativa de suspense tem um ritmo de graduação constante, e a única coisa que pode ser criticada é a direção algo rotineira nos locais, mas de resto totalmente soberana. (08/10/2018)

As much as the cards are dealt more than decently at the beginning (a cool crime, an intervention into difficult Danish history, translated relatively painlessly into contemporary themes) after the halfway point it starts to fall apart unpleasantly, the stupid behavior of the characters becomes annoyingly irritating, and the whole thing gets buried again by that touch of ordinary TV detective that weighed down the previous episodes. The entire Home for Wayward Girls has, by all accounts, two employees, we basically never get any evidence of any significant ability in the central detectives, as they stumble upon most of the progress in the case by accident or get it by phone calls, and when we get to the more dynamic passages, the film starts to feel uncomfortably reminiscent of Cobra 11. It's no wonder the whole series has been such a success over here, it's exactly as unambitious and frozen as the Czech TV viewer likes it. Perhaps only the unchanging character of Carl, who really doesn't move anywhere with his dickishness until the last seconds of the whole series, allows for some catharsis at the end. Yes, I was rooting for the woman in the restaurant to see through him and call the police on him right after he finishes eating her almonds. (23/04/2019)

Journal 64 was even more entertaining than the previous installment of the Adler-Olsen series. The creators managed to build a perfectly unsettling atmosphere and very decent suspense, this time adding proper action as well. Morck was, unlike the upbeat Assad, clearly bullied by life and the story made sense, so I was happy and had almost nothing to complain about. (08/03/2019)