Stellan Skarsgard
“IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE” My rating: B-
116 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Avoid pissing off civil servants. They have so many ways to get even.
In the Norwegian thriller “In Order of Disappearance” a nondescript snowplow driver (apparently it’s a year-around gig in parts of that Scandinavian nation) goes on a methodical killing spree to avenge his son’s murder.
As Hans Petter Moland’s film begins, Nils Dickman (Stellan Skarsgard) is being honored as his tiny burg’s Citizen of the Year. He’s a hard-working, inoffensive sort who gets up early every morning to clear the roads in his mountainous district — “Just a guy who keeps a strip of civilization open through the wilderness.” For fun he reads technical manuals for heavy-duty snow removal equipment.
But when his son is found dead — apparently of a drug overdose — Dickman refuses accept the official police version of events. He discovers that his boy was collateral damage in a drug smuggling conspiracy operating out of the snowbound regional airport where the kid worked maintenance.
So this working stiff nearing retirement saws down his hunting rifle (so that it can be concealed beneath his snow parka) and systematically begins working his way up the food chain of the local drug gang. He dumps the bodies in a scenic waterfall.
Kim Fupz Akeson’s screenplay is a balancing act between genuine outrage/grief and black comedy ala Tarantino and the Coen Brothers. Skarsgard plays it straight — he’s a man on a mission — but the crooks he picks off one by one are flamboyantly offbeat.
The main baddie is The Count (Pal Sverre Hagen), a preening, pony-tailed sociopath art collector who, when he’s not giving orders to have people killed, is advocating for veganism.
Butler's Cinema Scene 