A Conspiracy of Faith (2016)

After diving into the jet-black snow of the Nordic Noir dark Comedy In Order of Disappearance in September 2016,I took a look at director Hans Petter Moland's IMDb page,and found that Moland had made the 3rd title in the Department Q movies. Originally being unable to find the film on DVD (it is now out in a box set) I was thrilled to find the BBC recently showing all the movies in the series,which led to me again joining the department.The plot:Spending years working the cold cases with Assad in Department Q, detective Carl Mørck begins expressing about how worn down he is starting to feel. On a beach, a person finds a message in a bottle. As the bottle lands on Department Q, Mørck and Assad realise that the note is from a boy who was kidnapped six years ago by someone with religious connections. Attempting to identify the boy, Assad and Mørck uncover a series of kidnaps and murders have taken place,of children whose parents were involved in various short-lived religious cults,that leads to this being holy final mission for Mørck.View on the film:Ploughing the frost of In Order Of Disappearance,director Hans Petter Moland & cinematographer John Andreas Andersen give the title an icy Nordic Noir chill,with a car park chase and the ocean where the killer hides being given a rough quality expressing the darkness that hides in the isolated locations. Cutting into the backstory of the killer with a Slasher-style flashback ( "No Mommy!") Moland gives (what appears to be) the final Department Q movie an earthy gravitas,in stylish close-ups uncovering the burnt-out state of Mørck.Returning to adapt Jussi Adler-Olsen's (who has written 7 books in the series) book,the screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel loses some of the tightly coiled focus of the second entry by leaving open wounds in the investigation,with the "professional" level Department Q is held in being at odds with the open goals they miss (no one uses a tracking device to try and find the psycho.) Making the memory of a strange noise a major clue,Arcel borrows from the Giallo genre for a slick Nordic Noir serial killer tale,where the unmasking of the killer is cleverly linked to Nordic Noir's major theme of the corrupt business elite,as Department Q closes its doors.

I got a book named Message in a bottle, translated from the original, by Jussi A.O. from my friend, and did not even opened it for a month. Just did not have time. And yesterday I started and finished it. Thats the way I do. Just could not let it go. What a great story. I was so excited. Every character well described. You read it and you feel it,seeing it in front of your eyes. Commented with my husband that will be great if they make a TV show, to describe all characters and details. Jussi wrote a great novel. Then my friend told me there was already a movie too and started laughing. So, I found it, watched it, and from the first second was like : What the...??? Disappointed. Lots of pieces and people been missing, whole story went wrong. If you expecting to see what you read, do not bother. Do not get me wrong, they had a great actors, and scenes, but the story was just weak. Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Søren Pilmark, Pål Sverre Hagen and everyone else did their job. Except screenwriter and director. Shame on you, Disappointed Q.

Erlösung was an interesting watch. This thriller plays in Denmark and you see for once other pictures than in the usual Hollywood films of this genre. The story is promising but loses sometimes itself to stick criminal research elements together until the end. There are some flaws but if you can look away it works anyway for a solid thriller. I expected some harder punishment for the kidnapper that I want not to spoil more here. In other American kidnapping movies the killing scene of the bad guy is developed much more spectacular. If you liked it you should see Panic Room, Hostage, Trapped or The Call. You won't regret. In fact Erlösung is one part of a trilogy with the same actors. There are rumors that they will be filmed for a remake in Hollywood. So I think I wait to see the other two until they come out new again. 6/10.

This was such a disappointment! I had such high hopes after reading the book, which was so beautifully and perfectly written, it was like watching a movie. The suspense during the book lasted its entire duration, with slow, steady, and increasingly disturbing character development. The history and motivation of the killer, and almost all events leading to and following what could have been an breathtaking climax, were changed. In short, someone took this script and made it like every other Hollywood movie about good versus evil, and faith versus the absence of faith. I am hoping the remaining adaptations of the department Q series stay true to the books, as they deserve better than this.