I suspect I’m an outlier in only finding this movie ok. I wanted to like it more based on the good word-of-mouth but only found it mildly entertaining and occasionally funny. I respect what it’s doing, at least. It’s fairly clever.

The film stars Mads Mikkelson as a soldier and a father who loses his wife and has to figure out how to connect with his teenage daughter. A trio of nerds convince him that a local gang is responsible for the death so they hatch a plan to take revenge. And while Mads has a (say it with me) particular set of skills, the nerds do not. But they do recommend therapy, (over)analyze data, and take in a victim of the gang with an incomprehensible name.

What I enjoyed about this film is that it legitimately tries to disassemble the Taken brand of revenge films while still being one. Not in the way that John Wick does it where it’s a kick-ass action flick with a flimsy excuse for all the murder… but because the movie asks questions about revenge and about coincidence…. and it dares to throw half of that out the window.

And the movie is surprisingly sweet and is just as much about forming an unlikely family as anything else. They all unite to help the daughter deal with grief and to teach her chess (among other things). It’s remarkably sweet for a movie starring a stoic, almost impenetrably rock-like Mads Mikkelson.

But… I found most of the rest of the movie only ok. The sparks of humor and humanity were there but not as there as I would have liked. And the action was limited as well. I don’t think it did anything wrong specifically… I just wasn’t engaged with it when it wasn’t hitting on the right cylinders.

But I enjoyed the effort and think it’s still a pretty worthy film.

Score: 77