Last Updated on 07/09/2024 by Arun jain
Heist films can be a dime a dozen, but The quiet ones There is a crisp $100 bill. Frederik Louis Hvid’s caper is a well-oiled machine, as precise and ready as its thief protagonist, whose mission—inspired by the true story of Denmark’s biggest heist of all time—is to empty a cash-handling firm of its enormous reserves. owe everything from Asphalt jungle from the heat And yet fueled by a distinctive style rooted in charged silences, this standout thriller bolsters its well-worn formula with a masterful performance by headliner Gustav Diekjer Geis as a meticulous steward and boxer who most daringly tries to realize his dreams of glory in an outlaw. . Imaginative
It will premiere on September 6 Toronto International Film Festival, The quiet ones Dawn in 2007 opens with a serene, blue-tinted panorama of Gothenburg, Sweden. On an armored truck below, its camera shifts inside a castle on wheels, counterbalanced with unhurried grace by Martin Durkov’s ominous, ticking-clock score, HVID (channeling Christopher Nolan-via-Michael Mann). Where the driver and his new companion are chatting about this while doing their morning duties. Before they can leave, they are surrounded by multiple vehicles from which armed assailants emerge. Things quickly go to hell, culminating in tragedy and failure for everyone involved, all dramatized in the first of three dazzlingly elaborate and masterful single takes from the backseat of a car.
A year later in Ballerup, Denmark, pugilist Casper (Gies) pays attention to his daughter Sara (Dagmar Medicen Grieve Hales), who wants to know when he will become champion. Casper can’t answer that question, because he’s on the comeback trail and—reassuring declarations be damned—hasn’t convinced his trainer that his mind (and heart) is really in it. However, Casper is given another shot at an in-ring career, so when he is informed by his brother-in-law that a Moroccan wants to meet with him, he ignores the invitation. The second time he approaches this man, he relaxes and learns that the man is Slimani (Reda Kateb), one of the men responsible for the 2007 armored-truck fiasco. Slimani wants Casper to help him rob one of five cash handling firms serving Denmark. Unwilling to jeopardize his athletic opportunity, Casper agrees to help plan the work but refuses to do dirty work that could get him hurt.
His torso ripped and erect, and his cheek scarred courtesy of a long-ago run-in with hungry dogs, Casper is a man of few words. still, The quiet ones Through a long, silent master sequence, the burning desire to be great, to make his daughter proud, and to prove his doubters wrong while suppressing his own doubts — deftly conveys the thoughts and feelings that drive him down his future path. Shots, close-ups and zooms are attached with weighty import.
Geese’s intensely composed mask stirs a commotion within, and that holds true for the film as well. Scene after scene is marked by little dialogue and heavy tension, with the stakes gradually being raised in different directions with the suspense building. Better still, Hviid intersperses such calm with bursts of bravura helter-skelter violence, highlighted by occasional police car chases and late-night rainy escapades.
While conducting their targeted joint case with Slimani and unpopular colleague Hesse (Christopher Wegelin), Kasper is approached by security guard (and wannabe cop) Maria (Amanda Collin), who gets a good look in his face. This is not enough to prevent Casper from going ahead as planned, but the latest theft has escalated police activity to a level that Slimani finds unacceptable. After his boxing luck hits the proverbial mat, Casper soldiers on, convincing his comrades that he can complete the heist in 16 minutes and without the use of a gun. To do this, he needs a line of garbage trucks to block the police station exits and roadways, three Audi A6s as getaway cars and a loader that can break down the wall that separates the cash depot from the adjacent storage facility.
With a plan, Kasper, Slimani and Haase recruit a team of wheelmen, suppliers and gunmen to commit the crime, and The quiet ones This dynamic flows with efficiency, its compact plotting aided by Adam Wallenstein’s evocative nighttime cinematography. Everything ties the gang’s heist together nail-bitingly, and as proper films like this, what should go without a hitch doesn’t happen, thanks to mistaken assumptions, panic-driven decisions and strokes of misfortune, the last of which surprisingly involves Maria. , a no-nonsense security guard whose instinct (as she makes clear in her initial interview for a law enforcement position) is to run after the bad guys.
Despite the inevitable chaos that surrounds them all as they attempt this epic fraud—which nets a total of DKK 70 million, of which only 4 have been recovered—Casper keeps his cool, and so does Hviid. , his stewardship is as ruthlessly economical and electric in the end as it was in the beginning.
The quiet ones Its edges are colored with radio reports about the 2007-2008 financial crisis that first gripped America and later the rest of the world, including Denmark. Casper’s motivations are selfish, not political, but Anders Frithiof August’s script refers to the robbery as an outgrowth of economic instability and uncertainty. For the most part, however, Hviid’s recent works fixate on crimes, relationships, and the complex mechanics of the mind, and both are astute enough to pinpoint the universal emotions that compel people to take dangerous (if not outright self-destructive) actions. , and recognize that allowing yourself to be governed by them is usually a one-way ticket to disaster. Further embellished with hints of racism and sexism, which come as additional irrational forces at play in this saga, it has a harsh, stripped-down authenticity.
A thriller about tough, desperate men doing tough, desperate things, The quiet ones Neither over-reaches nor under-delivers; Instead, he approaches his assignments with humility, suggesting that the imposing Geez—his eyes light up even as his body is still—may be cut out for a big, bright Hollywood future.
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