The Last Viking

The Last Viking | 2025 | 15 | Dir Anders Thomas Jensen | Denmark | IMDb 7.2 | Subtitled | 116 mins

Our next film in the core season is The Last Viking, featuring Harrogate Film Society favourite Mads Mikkelsen (which I have on good authority is pronounced Mazz Maaklesen). It is directed by Anders Thomas Jensen who made Riders of Justice a previous bonus core season offering.

The film is an audacious blend of black comedy, post heist narrative, and family drama. At its centre is Anker (Nikolaj Lie Kaas), newly released after a 15‑year prison sentence for bank robbery. Returning home, he discovers that his brother Manfred (Mads Mikkelsen) has developed dissociative identity disorder (DID) and now believes he is John Lennon. This would be merely eccentric if not for one crucial complication: Manfred buried the stolen money years earlier and no longer remembers where.

What follows is a deliberately chaotic and darkly humorous adventure. Anker, desperate to recover the money, removes Manfred from a psychiatric hospital; along with several other DID patients who believe they are various members of The Beatles. His hope is that surrounding Manfred with “like‑minded” companions will trigger the memory he needs. The resulting journey is sprawling, unpredictable, and frequently absurd, yet anchored by Lie Kaas’ wonderfully weary straight‑man performance and Mikkelsen’s total commitment to his situation.

Despite its comic energy, the film treats DID with care. The director acknowledges the condition’s roots in childhood trauma, and the brothers’ past is revealed through flashbacks that lend the story emotional weight. Mikkelsen’s portrayal of Manfred is central to this balance: he totally avoids caricature, offering a gentle, soulful performance that stands in striking contrast to his usual brooding roles along with a striking mullet.

Visually, The Last Viking pairs wide, windswept shots of the Danish wilderness with a folklore‑inspired woodland setting, reflecting Manfred’s childhood fascination with Vikings.

The film is difficult to categorise, and if you dislike its tone, don’t worry as there’ll be another one along in a minute. That put some critics off, but many felt that The Last Viking embraces its own multiple personalities. It is at once a heist story, a fractured family portrait, a comedy of errors, and a study on identity.

As the brothers’ sister observes, “People are more than one thing,” a sentiment that becomes the film’s guiding idea. Beneath the disorder lies a sincerity about how trauma shapes us and how relationships define us. It neatly uncovers that even the strangest circumstances can reveal unexpected truths.

Close in style to Wild Men, with some Rain Man thrown in for good measure.

·       Screen 1

·       Doors open 7pm (or when Odeon staff permit entry)

·       Welcome from our chair Paula Stott @ 7.30pm

·       Free parking after 6pm if you DISPLAY an orange parking voucher, available from Odeon staff

·       Unreserved seating

·       We invite every viewer to score the film afterwards using a token system in the lobby