One of Denmark’s finest actors, Mads Mikkelsen has lately demonstrated that he’s also among Hollywood’s most intriguing performers. He was terrifying in Casino Royale, empathetic in The Hunt – and an engaging romantic lead in A Royal Affair (we should also mention his stunningly nasty turn in TV’s Hannibal). Now, inevitably perhaps, he turns his attention towards the hoariest of genres, the Western.
Mikkelsen plays Jon, a Danish immigrant awaiting the arrival of his wife and child to America. Inevitably it all goes terribly wrong and John comes down with Liam Neeson-syndrome as he tries to settle a score with vengeful mobster Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).
Director Kristian Levring paces the formulaic action well and the Western landscapes are dazzling. But the main female characters, played by Eva Green and Nanna Oland Fabricius, are a disappointment – doormats with nothing to really say or do. That’s a shame as recent Westerns such as The Homesman and True Grit have given us strong female characters. Chalk it down as an opportunity missed.