Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Fares Fares, Pål Sverre Hagen, Jakob Ulrik Lohmann, Amanda Collin, Johanne Louise Schmidt, Jakob Oftebro, Signe Anastassia Mannov, Søren Pilmark, Michael Brostrup, Morten Kirkskov, Olivia Terpet Gammelgaard, Jasper Møller Friis, Louis Sylvester Larsen, Lotte Andersen, Benjamin Kitter, Maria Rossing.
Faith is to be admired, even if you don’t follow a religion, a certain devotion to the conviction in a higher spirit, for to see someone take heart from the road they entrust to their faith is to feel at times blessed, assured that through their eyes the picture before you is arguably bigger, more focused; if it makes them happy and content to keep going through life’s most strenuous ordeals then who are you to knock them down.
Faith though can also corrupt, it can become a tool of suspicion, of misgiving, and what was originally holy, above cynicism, can become a sign of fraudulent behaviour, of the peace being shattered. It is a shattering of faith that brings Carl Mørck to his knees and not one derived from any belief in a God, but one from something more sacred, the human heart and condition.
The final part of the Department Q trilogy, A Conspiracy of Faith, sees Carl Mørck and his partner Assad clash over the use of faith in the modern world, one that has seen a series of children abducted over the years from their Danish homes and in many cases murdered by the person who seized them. It is this conflict of faith that brings out the worst and finest of both detectives’ qualities, Mørck’s fall from grace as he continues his self damnation course and Assad’s sheer belief that without faith then humanity is as doomed and cursed and the person behind the children’s kidnappings.
Whilst not the strongest of the three films involving Department Q, it does have its moments in which the dialogue and exchange between the two lead actors is perfectly paced, its study into how partners in such a field have to give and take without losing their own particular vision is exemplary. The difficulty with the film is that it is hard to see the difference between it and James Paterson’s Along Came A Spider and whilst the reason for the nemesis’ actions are succinct, the objectivity at the end of it hangs very much off the same tree, the same course of action is felt and relied upon and it is that makes this film not quite hitting the same high standards as the other two had set.
A great trilogy which unfortunately went off the boil in its concluding part, a generous story line in which Nikolaj Lie Kaas and Fares Fares excelled, the keeper of lost causes is always looking out for those ill treated by the evil in society, and one that perhaps arguably should have been allowed to grow into a much more discerning set of films.
Ian D. Hall