How the sausage is made
In Anders Thomas Jensen’s pitch-dark Danish comedy “The Green Butchers,” Svend (Mads Mikkelsen) and Bjarne (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) work in a butcher shop whose burly proprietor, Holger (Ole Thestrup), is a smug, petty tyrant and full-time put-down artist. Svend, who has a most unflattering receding hairline, is a high-strung, ambitious man who has known virtually nothing but hardship and frustration since early childhood, when he lost his parents in a car accident -- and he is Holger’s favorite target.
By contrast, Bjarne is a sweet-natured, heavy-duty pot smoker, a strong, often silent type, but with a haunted quality, for he lost not only his parents but also his wife seven years earlier, also in a car accident that left his retarded twin brother, Eigil (Kaas), in a coma and institutionalized. Bjarne doesn’t let Holger bother him too much, but the day arrives when Svend has finally had it and persuades Bjarne to join him in opening their own butcher shop.
Their grand opening, in a worn old building, is less than stellar, despite the efforts of a brass band to drum up business. Sure enough, Holger drops in to gloat and sneeringly asks Svend to contribute sausage to the upcoming Rotary meeting. This is the moment at which Svend snaps. Unbeknownst to Holger, Svend has just discovered that the electrician he hired to install more lighting in his walk-in freezer has accidentally frozen to death. Already panicked by the discovery and now enraged at Holger, he hacks off the electrician’s right leg so he can use it in the sausage.
It’s such a huge hit at the Rotary banquet that Svend suddenly has customers lining up requesting more -- and “The Green Butchers” is off and running with an almost painful hilarity. Indeed, it is Jensen’s acute sense of life’s cruel absurdities that allows him to illuminate how pain and hilarity can continually flow into each other. He creates and sustains an engaging empathy for Svend and Bjarne while suggesting that meddlesome, nasty spoilsports like Holger are among life’s truest villains. Mikkelsen and Kaas are up to the demands of their roles, revealing impressive range and skill.
Films that set up such potentially bizarre premises and then milk them for all they’re worth often leave their makers struggling to come up with a finish that is not a letdown. As it turns out, the warm and radiantly lovely presence of Line Kruse’s Astrid, whom Jensen gradually weaves into his story, allows “The Green Butchers” to end on a richly satisfying note.
*
‘The Green Butchers’
MPAA rating: Unrated
Times guidelines: Adult themes, macabre situations; unsuitable for youngsters.
Mads Mikkelsen...Svend
Nikolaj Lie Kaas...Bjarne/Eigil
Line Kruse...Astrid
Bodil Jorgensen...Tina
Ole Thestrup...Holger
A Newmarket Films release of an M&M; production. Writer-director Anders Thomas Jensen. Producers Kim Magnusson and Tivi Magnusson. Cinematographer Sebastian Blenkov. Editor Anders Villadsen. Music Jeppe Kaas. Costumes Mia Stensgaard, Helle Nielsen. Production designer Mia Stensgaard. In Danish with English subtitles.
Exclusively at the Nuart through Thursday, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 281-8223.
