False Trail (2011)

What a waste of my time!!!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

After watching the very interesting 2017 doc Out of Thin Air,I started thinking about watching a new title from the Nordic Noir genre. Picking up a newspaper on the way back home,I was excited to spot that a Nordic Noir I've read a lot about was to be shown,which led to me locating the true trail.The plot:Leaving the police after a fellow officer killed himself over a case he was investigating, Erik Bäckström is forced to return in order to help find missing Elin Ledin. Being more of a forensic investigator, Bäckström finds himself uncomfortable around the aggressive style of policing officer Torsten. Whilst being taken out on a hunting trip by Torsten, reports come in that Ledin's body dissected body has been found in the woods they are going to. As the cops pat each other on the back, Bäckström begins suspecting that Torsten has a connection to the murder.View on the film:With one of the main themes of the genre being the police taking on the corrupt business elite, the screenplay by Stefan Thunberg & Björn Carlström give this staple of Nordic Noir a bare-knuckle twist,by making the police themselves be corrupt. Smartly limiting links to the first film to brief mentions that add depth to Bäckström's coming out of the wilderness,the writers make Torsten an attention-grabbing psychopath,whose swagger with a badge can't stop Bäckström chipping away at a macabre murder mystery, or the writers unveil disturbing family secrets hidden in Nordic Noir shadows.Confronting everyone against director Kjell Sundvall and cinematographer Jallo Faber rural coloured backwoods, Peter Stormare fires on all cylinders as Torsten, with Stormare making him a snarling rogue,whose rapid-fire mouth is matched by his casual use of brutal violence. Haunted by his last case, Rolf Lassgård gives a great, worn-down performance as Bäckström, who lashes out at the frustrations of the jammed mechanics that is the police, but is balanced out by Lassgård with a Noir loner single mindedness to uncover the true trail.

FALSE TRAIL, a Swedish slice of crime noir, is a follow up to 1996's THE HUNTERS, and sees returning protagonist Erik Backstrom (Rolf Lassgard) back to solve more crimes in the chilly Scandinavian wilderness. Well, it took them fifteen years to make a sequel, but the wait was worth it: I find this to be a superior follow up in terms of excitement, thriller aspects, and pacing.THE HUNTERS was a similarly-plotted story but had a different style of execution: it was darker, more of a family tragedy, and rather depressing. FALSE TRAIL is equally dark but has more of a conventional detective feel to it, a battle of wits between good and evil. Some viewers will find it the lesser piece, but I preferred it. It helps that Peter Stormare (FARGO) has a huge and complex role and is absolutely fantastic in it, the best work yet I've seen from the actor.Inevitably, the taciturn and grumpy Backstrom is the film's guiding force, and Lassgard is a delight to watch as ever. The production values are better than ever, and Kjell Sundvall seems to have really grown as a director, crafting a well-polished and exciting thriller in which the stakes are never less than high. Unpredictable, involving, and harrowing, FALSE TRAIL is one to watch.

FALSE TRAIL (aka HUNTERS 2) is a Swedish cop film set in the redneck- like rural part of the country where bad rock music, check shirts and alcoholism are the height of cool. When a girl is murdered a city cop from Stockholm is sent back to his rural home, where it turns out that his (widowed) sister is law is married to the local top-cop, who also happens to be city cop's prime suspect. Things are kept nicely murky for quite a while, with the protagonist's suspicions often seeming more like prejudice than fact, as the investigation twists and turns. At a certain point it becomes not so much a question of whodunnit but rather of whether the protagonist can actually pin the murder on the criminal as they brilliantly cover their tracks. Similar to many other Scandi films, this is as much a drama as a genre film, with it offering a compellingly brutal portrayal of controlling manhood. The countryside is gorgeously shot, it's packed with good actors (Stomare's beard deserves its own credit), the rural setting is unusual and atmospheric, and it slowly builds up the pace until it comes to a shatteringly savage Cain-and-Abel type finale in the woods.

The Interrogator Erik Backstrom (Rolf Lassgård) is forced to return to his former home village to solve a murder mystery, in which the local polices and some hunters and even Erik's family seems to be involved. Soon, the conflicts are in full action, especially between Erik and the local police Torsten (Peter Stormare). Torsten does not support Erik very much in his job and has, for some personal reasons, already arrested a suspected perpetrator. Eric takes great risks when he starts digging in the criminal material of the horrible murder case.Director Kjell Sundin was right when he, after some hesitation, decided to make a successor of Jägarna (The Hunters). There are some flashbacks in the second film, but it doesn't matter. The second film stands on its own and the drama has got its own story with all the ingredients for a strong thriller and with star actors performing convincingly in the spectacular northern landscape of Sweden. The movie is filmed in the small place Överkalix and its surroundings.Peter Stormare makes an impressing role portrait of the psychopathic policeman Torsten. With small and powerful expressions he excellently performs the complex character. Stormare is a brilliant and talented actor, who can turn stereotypes into great art. Rolf Lassgård is an experienced actor and convincing as the homicide detective, but sometimes falls into manners in his attempts to make the rather flat role more interesting. Annika Nordin as Torsten's betrayed wife Karin is, however, too sophisticated and beautiful for the part. Eero Milonoff performs with force the rough drinker Jari, that with his friend Esa (Juho Milonoff) are the social problems of the village. The film photo by Jallo Faber is beautiful, even if the sharpness could have been better. But he captures the expressions of the actors very well and seduces us with the grandiose views of the landscape. The writers Bjorn Carlstrom and Stefan Thunberg have created a strong story with an excellent and realistic dialog.Unfortunately this exciting down-to-earth drama turns into a melodramatic operatic final that does not give the movie full points, even if the story maybe couldn't end in another way. And the closing scenes with the well-polished victims along with Erik in an idyllic winter landscape, feels too heavenly. The consequences of the violent drama should have left some traces with the victims, who actually got life-threatening damages in the film.But Jägarna 2 (The Hunters 2) got eight out 10, for an exciting movie with talented actors and filmmakers of which Sweden has many reasons to be proud.