4 out of 5

Director: Anders Nilsson

Following both the unique blend of standard action and trope-sidestepping as well as the plot elements of the previous series’ entries, the third Johan Falk flick is the best so far, striking a balance between the side-story feeling of film two and the escalating involvement of the opener to craft another above above average cop movie.

So ‘Executive Protection’ flirted with this concept of the three waves of crime moving into Sweden, and I can only assume this was actually something dealt with in headlines (I have no idea, being 99.98% ignorant) because it becomes the center piece to our third movie, even cleverly being called ‘The Third Wave.’  Which, we’re told, is ‘smart’ crime – financial crime.  And Johan’s old police boss has gotten a promotion to deal with the matter, and he’s no bones about it, taking a press conference at film’s start to lay down that he feels like the cops have failed and every which where you turn is seeded with criminal elements – name banks, name companies – so it’s zero tolerance time, fuckers.

Flash to a chick discovering her boyfriend’s involvement with these elements, and then his threatening her to keep her mouth shut when she threatens to leave him… eliciting our cat and mouse chase.  Johan ain’t workin’ for no one at this point, taking up life as a grumpy paranoid while shacking up with Helen and daughter from our previous entries.  Eklund’s evolvement of Johan into this incredibly competent yet unnerved force is again masterful, making his relationship with Helen this odd bundle of understandable imbalance, his selfishness with his own desires running parallel to a need to see things through and help, as his isolative tendencies run up against a need to be able to give Helen a terse look and be told that he’s doing right or wrong.  It was a combo that seemed a bit more precarious in the previous film (which it was), but Nilsson and Jakob perfectly move things sensibly along without fussing with overwrought American story-telling.  We get it, all while the story keeps happening.  And importantly, Johan’s behaviors and involvement with Helen are integral to the way the story unfolds, which is where it succeeds over ‘Executive Protection.’

Johan is offered a job by his boss, during which girlfriend chicky of evil boyfriend shows up and wants to offer information about all the bad guys.  This, unfortunately, gets interrupted by the cats (to her mouse, ya’ dig?), and though Falky was all about telling his boss that no organization is to be trusted, that everything’s corrupt, he gleans that now he’s freaking goddamned involved BECAUSE EVERYTHING’S CORRUPT so now he’s gotta’ run along side this girl and figure things out.  It’s a legit way in to the story, and becomes more and more legit and Nilsson keeps driving home just how twisted all of these paths can be, to the extent that those on certain rungs have no idea they’re being funded by dirty dollars.  Flipping back and forth between English and Swedish, bringing (again, I assume) timely politics front and center, and it boils down to a truly wonderful chaotic last sequence.  It’s not Hollywood – several hitmen, several heroes, no one knows where anyone else is in the battle, good people get shot, bad people get shot – and Anders makes no slips on capturing it all effortlessly.  Bengt Nilsson’s score ditches a couple of the cheesy stings of the previous movies for some good thematic stuff, and Per-Arne Svensson returns to cinematography showing good flexibility, switching the palette to colder and gloomier vs. ‘Executive Protection’s daytime luster.

Whatevs, tons of words.  But tons of thrills, and a goddamn breath-stealing last showdown that you know something’s up but it works anyhow.  I’d say ‘Den Tredje Vagen’ flirts a little too closely with trying to force its Third Wave concept in – it starts to feel a bit inorganic, which can tend to happen when a plot element is based on real life events (real or not, it has the appearance of referencing something), accounting for the movie’s only stumble.  If Falk’s world continues to grow during the series as it has across three films and Nilsson can find a pitch between relevance and fiction, we might have a perfect film.