If
a politician on the rise can go missing in Denmark without much fuss, consider
how easy it is for a troubled teen to disappear. She came from money to, but
found herself stuck with an antagonistic stepmother. That led to boarding
school, where anything can happen, including murder. Her case comes to Carl Mørck
through a particularly tragic set of circumstances, but that guarantees he will
see it through to the bitter end of Mikkel Nørgaard’s The Absent One (trailer here), which opens as part of the entire Danish
crime trilogy this Friday at the IFC Center.
Technically,
this is not a cold case, but Mørck is not inclined to care. A distraught former
copper committed suicide after unsuccessfully entreating Mørck to reopen the
investigation of his murdered twin daughters. Even more guilt-ridden than
usual, Mørck starts perusing his disordered files, finding plenty of suspicious
stuff. The incident in question turns out to be one of several that took place
near a tony boarding school—always on Sunday nights, the entitled pupils’ only
day of rest. Gallingly, the townie who took the fall received a suspiciously light
sentence and has since prospered. Connecting the dots, Mørck and Assad soon
focus on the hotel heir Ditlev Pram and his privileged bestie, Ulrik Dybbøl.
Pram’s
former girlfriend Kimmie Lassen could surely shine some light on their
activities, but she has gone off the grid. Emotionally damaged by her
experiences with Pram, Lassen tries to live an anonymous existence as one of
the faceless homeless. Unfortunately, Pram will send his fixer to find for her,
when his highly placed police contacts inform him of Mørck’s investigation.
One
of the great weaknesses of Keeper is
its villain, who turns out to be rather bland when we finally meet him. Absent One partly rectifies that,
casting two of Denmark’s most recognizable actors, Pilou Asbæk (A Hijacking) and David Dencik (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) as Pram
and Dybbøl, respectively. They are pretty odious. Kaas and Fares continue to
build a reasonably credible odd couple rapport together, while Johanne Louise
Schmidt adds a humanizing touch as their lucky new assistant Rose.
