5 out of 5

Director: Anders Nilsson

It’s the ones that do the slow burn dance that work the best, and Anders has had his hand in a few of those.  ‘Alla’ starts out in the Falk mold of crime first, then GSI is somewhat involved, then Johan gets them over-involved, then some wayward decisions and/or unavoidable circumstances cause things to go afoul, then boom-bap conclusion.  Some people may die or have their paths irrevocably altered.  Done?  Did I just describe a billion films?  Probably.

‘The Mother of All Robberies’ – and that’s what this one is.  Which is nice, it’s a pretty focused film, the previous ‘107 Patriots’ an excellent entry but sort of misleading with its focus.  Since handing over the directing/writing reigns to various parties, series overlord Anders Nilsson has seemed to have some hesitation as to which direction to aim the series.  Initial Falk entries had an interesting political background over which the crime-of-the-flick was lain; after Johan was properly seated with GSI, the focus mostly titled toward Seth Rydell’s gang.  With Johan’s informant – Frank – only appearing in this film in a flashback and somewhat bookended into the previous entry, while Rydell and crew are certainly still involved, there’s a question of how else we’re going to expand the palette.  ‘107’ thus felt like a side story as it felt around for a flow, but set up a necessary hook with the leader of the Rydell’s – Seth (who’s getting more and more manly attractive – perhaps replacing Joel Kinnaman’s Frank as some heartthrob action – after a couple prison sentences) being contacted by GSI’s Sophie in an attempt to coerce him (via blackmail, natch) to turn informant.  That’s the element that ends up selling ‘Alla’, along with the always fun Ocean’s 11 kind of interest that’s inherent in piecing together what all the bits we’re being shown have to do with making some ultimate heist work.

Which, I gotta’ say, even though these entries are now from 2012, the Falk series has always carried with it a slightly outdated feel – but its my Americanism speaking, expecting the stakes to always be for boatloads of drugs or cash, and the JF flicks have always kept things grounded in the more – I assume – realistic quantities.  But this is the mother of all robberies, so the number 2 Billion – to be stolen from a large Swedish bank which is probably famous but the name of which I can’t recall – is a big number to any of us, right?  So I appreciate that, well, the stakes were felt this time.  Keeping with the realistic traditions, though, this isn’t Ocean’s 11, and the security procedures taken to protect the cash, along with the methods developed to nab it, all felt plausible.

Anyhoo, Seth isn’t Frank.  Rydell gang drama in previous JF’s tended to be getting Frank in over his head; here it’s that we really can’t know what Seth is going to do, and though it takes some time setting all of these pieces up, until we’re settled in that the bank robbery is background to Sophie / Seth drama, once things are in place, Anders can work his magic (from a script by Tage Åström, which avoids any evolutions to characters but keeps everyone feeling true to form) with subtlety and sudden, effective jumps in violence or action.  It becomes tense, with expertly understated acting by Jens Hultén as Seth to seal the deal.  Johan is slipping somewhat into a fatherly role, but his part in things is still fresh thanks to an interesting camaraderie developing with Sophie (who was once against him) and the newer agents of the team battling it out between duty and dedication to an older regime that seems to bungle things frequently.

We’re back to non-Anders realm for the next fiml, but the man has been involved with story and production the whole way (if the credits are to be believed), and its so awesomely amazing to me that he’s kept such consistency in this world for over ten years.  Even if you view the series more as movie-length television dramas, it’s impressive how fleshed out everything’s become without overtly splattering it on the screen.  This is an easy entry to the series as well, with enough newness to capture interest and enough hints of past ties to maybe stir the desire to check the archives.