4 out of 5

Directed by: Richard Holm

I went ahead and included that English title because it’s a lovely DTV-type title, innit?  It’s also fitting for this Johan entry, as it stirs story remnants (from our last entry, three years ago!) into something intense.

Here’s your learning curve, and it’s the biggest roadblock, even for someone who’s been keeping up with this series: Ur askan i elden really offers no context for any of its characters or situations beyond the briefest of recaps (which, if this is your first, might elicit a “was that just Robocop?” response to Joel Kinnaman’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance), and even that is used solely to make the dialogue in the next scene make sense as a springboard for what follows.  While three years between sequels isn’t necessarily uncommon, and has been the practice with these films – to wait and then dump several in a year – the Falk series fairly casually worked on its ongoing elements while delivering standalone movies, until the 2012 entries started to rope it all together for a relative go-out-with-a-bang conclusion in Kodnamn Lisa.  So to drop us in to events pretty much already running (although a real time of three years has passed in the film world too, nicely synced with Seth’s – Jens Hultén – release from jail) is a bit of a shock, and thus it takes about half of the film to warm to what’s going on.

Thankfully, we’re in good hands with director Richard Holm, who’s focused approach has been a boon to some of the series’ better flicks, and writer Viking Johansson, who’s been working on the Frank Wagner (Kinnaman) storyline from the get, and so knows this world pretty well.  And our lynchpin: Jakob Eklund as Johan.  Falk has stood out as a cop drama primary since forever: not exactly reckless, not exactly bumbling, not exactly meticulous, not exactly anything, but definitely not average.  He’s not a cipher, as the series has allowed his character to develop quite a bit, but it’s all down to Eklund’s working of his minimal dialogue into something representative of a real person who has feelings, and cares deeply for his family and friends, but would be lost without his work.  The cliched scene where the hero-in-danger calls his wife to say a coded goodbye remains a cliche when used here, but still, we buy the welling tears in Johan’s eyes thanks to 15 movies that have helped us to understand his personality.

Which, of course, touches back on that learning curve, which also applies to all of our other characters – Seth, Sophie (Meliz Karlge), Patrick (Mikael Tornving), Helén (Marie Richardson) – and whom are equally brought to life by each actor.  They all trust the script, and trust the series, and our creators seem to be trusting that their audience is already on board.  Get it?  Are you?  Good.

Three years on, Johan is still freaked out to figure how they knew Frank’s identity, and, as usual, the non-cop finds himself embroiled in insanity just by trying to help out, pursuing a lead on that curiosity which ends up with him waylaid in Finland, framed for murder.  God dammit, Johan!  Eklund’s low-rent machinations to escape (and thus believable, another fun element of the series) are mesmerizing, Holm and crew giving us just enough to get the gist and not be manipulative about reveals when they happen.  …Although there are some cell-phone dealings which stumbling subtitles didn’t help me to quite understand, something something spoof clone person of interest whatever makes it clear enough.

So: despite playing catch up, and despite viewing this with second-hand English subtitles, Ur askan i elden was still a riveting sequel, setting us up for four more films littered with, hopefully, the same sense of build-up and payoff.